E1X 

a 


AHISTORYOF  THE  JEWS 
IN  MODERN  TIMES 


BY 

MAX  RAISIN,  B.  A.,.  LL.  D. 


NEW  YORK 

HEBREW  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 

1919 


Xl) 


Copyright  1919 

By 
THE  HEBREW  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 


Stack 
Annex 


Solomon  Raisin 
iinforgettaftle 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 


PREFACE 


CHAPTER  IV 
CHAPTER  V 


vu 


INTRODUCTION •        ... 

CHAPTER  I 
NORTHERN,  CENTRAL  AND  WESTERN  EUROPE 

CHAPTER  II 

RUSSIAN  EMPIRE  ^ 

CHAPTER  III 
THE  BALKAN   STATES  .212 


AMERICAN  CONTINENT 245 


COLONIAL  JEWRY 

CHAPTER  VI 
PALESTINE,  THE  NATIONAL  REVIVAL,  AND  THE  ZIONIST  HOPE      355 

AT.Q 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

INDEX  441 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGB 

Georg    Brandes 8 

Prof.     Moritz    Lazarus 17 

[Ferdinand]    Lassalle 37 

Karl    Marx 41 

Alfred     Dreyfus 67 

Bernard    Lazare 7o 

Isaac   Bar   Levinsohn 112 

Dr.    Max   Lilienthal 116 

Sir    Moses    Montefiore 140 

H.     S.     Slonimsky 147 

Micah  Joseph   Lebensohn 150 

Judah    Loeb    Gordon 153 

Perez     Smolenskin 171 

Eliezer    Ben-Yehudah 173 

Isidore     Singer 176 

David    Frischman 177 

Shalom   Jacob    Abramovich 184 

Solomon    Rabbinnovich     186 

Isaac    Loeb    Perez 188 

Hayim   Nahman   Bialik 191 

Mendel   Beilis    198 

Rabbi  Jacob   Mazeh 201 

Col.    Berck    Joselowicz 203 

Dr.    Moses    Gaster 240 

Jacob  H.  Schiff 312 

Prof.    Solomon    Schechter 244 

Isaac   Mayer   Wise 253 

Hebrew    Union    College 265 

David   Einhorn    270 

Judah    Philip    Benjamin 278 

Rebecca    Gratz 286 

Leaving  the  Old  Home 294 


Michael    Heilprin 297 

Herman     Rosenthal 299 

Baron   de    Hirsch 301 

Jewish   Theological    Seminary 313 

Rabbi    Jacob    Joseph 315 

Rabbi    A.    M.    Radin 317 

Abraham     Goldfaden 320 

Morris   Rosenfeld 322 

Solomon     Bloomgarden("Yehoash")  324 

Jacob     Gordin 326 

Louis    D.    Brandeis 334 

Jerusalem 


357 

George    Eliot    365 

Scene  at   Mikveh  Israel 372 

Moses    Hess 375 

Baron   Edmond   de    Rothschild 379 

Colonists    at    Rehobot 380 

Kattowitz     Conference 386 

Asher  Ginzberg    ("Ahad   Haam")  .  .  389 

Dr.   Joseph    Chazanowicz 393 

Theodor  Herzl  398 

M.    M.    Ussyschkin 401 

Max     Nordau 406 

Israel    Zangwill 420 

Prof.    M.    Mandelstamm 422 

Jaffa    Harbor 424 

Tel  Aviv  426 

Haifa    428 

Vladimir    Zhabotinsky 430 

Col.   J.    H.    Patterson 432 

Dr.    Ch.    Weizmann 434 

Gen.    Allenby   entering  Jerusalem..  436 


PREFACE 

i 

Modern  Jewish  history,  as  the  term  is  under- 
stood to-day,  goes  no  further  back  than  the 
French  Revolution.  This  definition  may  sound 
arbitrary  to  those  who  are  accustomed  to  think 
of  Jewish  history  in  terms  of  general  history,  the 
modern  period  of  which  begins  with  the  discov- 
ery of  America  in  1492.  It  should  be  remem- 
bered, however,  that,  as  is  triie  in  so  many  things, 
Jewish  history  differs  from  that  of  the  rest  of 
mankind  also  in  the  periods  into  which  it  is 
divided.  Thus,  if  medievalism  may  be  said  to 
have  ceased  for  the  bulk  of  the  Western  nations 
of  Europe  with  the  close  of  the  I5th  century,  it 
has,  in  a  political  sense  at  least,  continued  for  the 
Jew  for  at  least  three  hundred  years  longer.  In 
this  sense,  therefore,  the  author  feels  justified  in 
the  construction  he  has  placed  upon  the  term 
"modern"  in  its  reference  to  Jewish  history.  The 
words  "modern  times"  used  in  the  title  of  this 
volume  bring  out  even  more  clearly  the  scope  of 
the  work.  It  is,  in  other  words,  a  history  of  the 
Jews  in  both  hemispheres  covering  more  than  one 
hundred  years  and  coming  down  to  1918.  Even 
here,  however,  the  author  found  himself  con- 
strained to  treat  his  subject  somewhat  arbitrarily. 
Not  all  of  the  Jewries  of  the  various  countries 
considered  are  traced  back  to  the  i8th  century,  this 
being  especially  true  in  the  case  of  the  Jews  of 
the  Central  and  Western  European  countries 

vii 


Vlll  PREFACE 

whose  fortunes  he  traces  only  from  the  epochal 
revolutionary  year  of  1848. 

The  reason  for  this  seeming  arbitrariness  is 
that  the  present  work  is  intended  as  a  companion 
volume  to  the  English  translation  of  Graetz's 
"Volkstumliche  Geschichte  der  Juden"  as  pub- 
lished by  the  Hebrew  Publishing  Company  of 
New  York.  The  author's  task  was  therefore  not 
only  to  begin  where  Graetz  had  left  off,  but  to 
fill  in  what  the  great  historian,  for  one  reason  or 
another,  had  left  out.  Graetz,  we  know,  has 
barely  touched  upon  the  history  of  the  Jews  in 
Russia,  probably  owing  to  the  fact  that  Russia, 
down  to  the  reign  of  Alexander  II,  was  largely  a 
terra  incognita  to  the  Jews  of  the  West,  while  the 
Jewish  community  of  America  was  scarcely  im- 
portant enough  in  his  day  to  dwell  upon  at  any 
length.  It  thus  became  necessary  to  tell  the  story 
of  these  Jewries  from  the  beginning.  This  will 
also  explain  the  occasional  overlapping  of  bound- 
aries and  the  seeming  repetition  of  facts  touched 
upon  by  Graetz  but  not  with  sufficient  adequacy 
from  the  writer's  standpoint.  In  a  work  of  the 
nature  of  the  present  volume  this,  for  obvious  rea- 
sons, was  unavoidable. 

The  writer  has  aimed  in  the  following  pages 
to  present,  on  the  basis  of  a  number  of  authorita- 
tive historical  works,  a  digest  of  leading  events  in 
the  history  of  modern  Jewry  and  the  conclusions  to 
be  drawn  from  them.  Details  have  been  resorted 
to  mainly  in  so  far  as  they  helped  to  bring  out  and 
corroborate  the  general  picture.  Facts  and  data 
were  condensed,  but  nothing  was  allowed  to 
escape  that  could  in  any  way  serve  to  portray  a 
phase  or  a  movement.  On  occasions,  indeed,  the 
writer  found  himself  impelled  to  sin  on  the  side 
of  greater  elucidation  and  to  expatiate  on  matters 
which  ordinarily  a  historian  might  barely  refer  to. 


PREFACE  IX 

This  he  did  not  without  full  consciousness  of  the 
peculiarity  of  the  treatment,  but  in  order  to  sub- 
serve thereby  the  tendency  underlying  his  work. 
He  has,  however,  guarded  against  causing  the  his- 
torian to  be  lost  in  the  preacher,  as  the  work  itself 
will,  he  hopes,  amply  bear  out. 

America  is  the  new  Jewish  wonder-world,  a 
sort  of  deus-ex-machina,  made-to-order  commu- 
nity which  rose  into  its  greatest  prominence  in 
Jewish  life  within  the  past  thirty  years.  Hence 
the  greater  detail  with  which  Reform  Judaism, 
Zionism,  the  Hebrew  and  Yiddish  literatures,  and 
the  Yiddish  theatre  in  America  are  treated,  not- 
withstanding that  these  movements,  on  account  of 
their  international  character,  receive  their  due  at- 
tention also  in  other  chapters.  At  the  same  time 
the  author  regrets  that  even  here  he  has  had  to 
limit  himself  to  the  enumeration  of  the  more  out- 
standing facts,  this  applying  also  to  authors  and 
books  where  he  had  to  guard  against  turning 
what  is  intended  as  a  general  history  into  a  mere 
catalogue  of  names  and  titles.  On  the  other  hand 
it  will  be  seen  that  he  has  not  been  averse  to 
quoting  liberally  from  a  number  of  prominent 
books  bearing  on  the  various  topics  under  discus- 
sion, this  both  because  of  the  corroborative  value 
of  the  excerpts,  and  of  the  historic  importance  of 
the  works  in  themselves. 

Now  this  work  was  completed  in  February, 
1918,  but  as  a  result  of  the  relentless  course  of 
the  Great  War  many  momentous  changes  have 
already  taken  place  in  the  world  since  then, 
greatly  affecting  the  position  of  the  Jews,  par- 
ticularly those  of  what  was  once  the  mighty  Rus- 
sian Empire,  and  of  Roumania.  It  is  safe  to 
assume  that  these  changes  are  of  but  a  tempo- 
rary nature,  resulting  as  they  did,  on  the  one  hand, 
from  a  revolution  which  is  still  in  the  making, 


X  PREFACE 

and,  on  the  other  hand,  from  an  inconclusive 
peace  forced  upon  both  Russia  and  Roumania  by 
a  Germany  that  not  only  has  failed  to  win  the 
war,  but  that  has  gone  down  in  disastrous  de- 
feat in  the  great  battle-field  events  which  have 
stirred  the  world  since  the  i8th  of  July,  and 
who,  at  this  writing,  famine-stricken  and  in  the 
throes  of  revolution,  is  a  suppliant  for  mercy  at 
the  hands  of  the  victorious  Allies.  By  the  ar- 
mistice terms  submitted  to  by  Germany  on 
November  n,  the  "Peace"  treaties  of  both  Brest- 
Litovsk  and  Bucharest  have  already  become  null 
and  void,  so  that  the  position  of  the  Jews  of  the 
above-mentioned  countries  will  presently  again 
become  materially  changed.  All  this  goes  to 
show  how  difficult  is  the  task  of  the  writer  of 
present-day  history,  since  what  is  a  fact  to-day 
may  become  an  untruth  to-morrow,  and  prog- 
nostication is  at  best  but  idle  speculation. 

The  author  herewith  expresses  his  thanks  to 
Mr.  Alexander  Harkavy  and  Mr.  Abraham  S. 
Freidus,  of  New  York,  for  many  helpful  sugges- 
tions, and  to  his  sister,  Mrs.  Sarah  Frances  Levin, 
of  Dayton,  Ohio,  for  assistance  in  the  reading  of 
the  manuscript.  For  whatever  typographical 
errors  there  may  have  eluded  the  watchfulness  of 
the  proofreader,  he  must  fall  back  upon  the 
kindly  indulgence  of  the  reader. 

MAX  RAISIN. 

Brooklyn,  N.  Y.f  November,  1918. 


INTRODUCTION 


The  very  latest  period  of  Jewish  history,  stretch- 
ing for  seventy  years,  from  1848  to  1918,  will 
doubtless  forever  rank  in  Jewish  annals  as  the  most 
important,  and  in  a  large  sense  the  most  glorious, 
page  in  the  story  of  the  Jewish  people  since  the 
destruction  of  the  Second  Temple  at  the  hands  of 
Titus.  It  is  a  period  mostly  of  storm  and  stress, 
of  bitter  persecution  and  untold  suffering  for  the 
many  with  but  a  modicum  of  relief  and  of  peace 
for  the  few.  There  is,  at  the  same  time,  a  steady 
flow  of  gradual  uplift,  of  amelioration  and  libera- 
tion. Sunshine  and  shadow  are  ever  at  conflict, 
the  forces  of  reaction  are  ceaseless  in  their  on- 
slaught on  liberalism  and  progress.  But  the  day 
of  complete  deliverance  finally  heaves  in  sight,  and 
amidst  the  anguish  and  suffering  of  a  great  world- 
war,  the  harrowing  effect  of  which  no  part  of  the 
inhabited  globe  is  permitted  to  escape,  mankind  ex- 
periences a  new  birth,  and  the  Jew,  too,  at  last  is 
about  to  come  into  his  own.  As  in  the  ancient 
Biblical  vision,  the  Virgin  of  Israel,  lying  faint  and 
prostrate,  with  her  life-blood  oozing  from  a  hun- 
dred wounds,  is  bid  to  come  to  life  again  and  to 
open  a  new  chapter  of  history  which  in  the  promise 
of  its  glory  shall  transcend  the  few  bright  pages  to 
be  found  in  even  so  sorrow-laden  a  record  as  is  that 
of  the  Jews  in  the  last  nineteen  hundred  years. 
The  signs  are  unfailing  that  out  of  the  terrible 
holocaust  which  has  descended  upon  the  world  for 
the  last  three  years  and  a  half,  a  new  day  is  at 
hand  when  the  weak  and  oppressed  of  the  earth 
will  find  themselves  permanently  delivered;  and 


x]j  INTRODUCTION 

among  these  the  Jew,  the  perennial  scapegoat  of 
the  world's  prejudice  and  hate,  must  be  first  to  re- 
ceive due  and  full  consideration  even  as  he  was  first 
to  suffer.  The  beginning  of  this  complete  emanci- 
pation has  already  been  made  in  the  wonderful 
change  in  the  status  of  six  million  Jews  wrought 
over  night,  as  it  were,  by  the  Russian  Revolution, 
and  by  the  declaration  of  the  English  government 
in  favor  of  the  re-establishment  of  an  autonomous- 
ly free  Jewish  nation  in  Palestine. 

In  considering  the  many  events  that  have  played 
an  important  part  in  Jewish  life  in  the  past  seventy 
years,  we  come  across  three  main  forces  that  have 
been  at  work  during  the  greater  part  of  this  pe- 
riod: (i)  Modern  Ant  is  emitism,  which,  originating 
in  its  organized  political  form  in  Germany,  has 
spread  to  neighboring  lands  and  found  an  espe- 
cially fertile  field  in  Russia  where,  in  the  influence 
it  exercised  upon  the  heads  of  the  state,  like  so 
many  other  ideas  and  policies  imported  into  that 
land  from  Germany,  has  led  to  a  renewal  of  the 
mediaeval  anti-Jewish  policy  after  its  suspension 
during  the  comparatively  liberal  regime  of  the  first 
twenty  years  of  the  reign  of  Czar  Alexander  II, 
and  resulted  in  the  terrible  pogroms  and  in  the  in- 
numerable restrictive  laws  which  marked  the  reigns 
of  his  two  successors.  Out  of  these  inhuman  per- 
secutions came  the  two  other  forces:  (2)  Immigra- 
tion to  Western  Europe  and  to  North  and  South 
America,  resulting  in  the  establishment  of  new 
Jewish  centres  which,  particularly  those  of  the 
United  States,  are  destined  to  play  a  most  impor- 
tant part  in  the  saving  and  rehabilitation  of  the 
many  old  Jewries  now  ruined  by  the  war;  and  (3) 
The  Reawakening  of  the  Jewish  Nationalist  Spirit, 
and  the  revival  of  the  Hebrew  language  and  liter- 
ature, resulting  in  the  Palestinian  colonization  and 
in  the  rise  of  the  Zionist  movement. 


INTRODUCTION  Xlll 

\Ye  need  but  bear  in  mind  these  three  forces  to 
have  a  clear  view  of  the  main  streams  of  Jewish 
life  in  the  period  under  consideration.     Jewry  in 
Western  Europe  and  in  America  might  have  been 
left  to  lead  an  uneventful,  self-satisfied  and  gradu- 
ally decadent  life  but  for  the  mighty  stream  of  im- 
migration from  Eastern  Europe  which  came  to  in- 
fuse new  life-blood  into  the  fast  drying  bones  of 
these  sections  of  emancipated  Israel.    The  awaken- 
ing to  a  high  degree  of  the  spirit  of  unity  and  mu- 
tual responsibility  throughout  Jewry  is  entirely  due 
to  these  immigrants  who  brought  with  them  into 
their  new  homes  a  vast  amount  of  Hebraic  learn- 
ing, an  intellect  sharpened  through  centuries  of  ap- 
plication to  the  study  of  the  intricacies  of  Talmudic 
jurisprudence,  and  an  unquenchable  enthusiasm  for 
all  things  Jewish.     Again,  this  vast  immigration 
would  have  been  impossible,  since  unnecessary,  had 
there   been   no   persecutions   in   Russia   and   Rou- 
mania  which,  as  already  stated,  came  in  the  wake 
of  the  recrudescence  of  German  Antisemitism  and 
its  reaction  upon  other  lands.    Jewish  nationalism, 
too,  with  its  accompanying  Hebrew  revival,  would 
have  been  very  slow  in  coming  but  for  the  self- 
same   causes.      The    policy   of    Bismarck    and   of 
Treitschke  in  making  Jew-baiting  a  popular  issue 
in   Germany  is   therefore  largely  responsible   for 
whatever  developments  in  the  international  situa- 
tion  of   the   Jew   there   have   occurred   since   the 
memorable    events  of    1848  when    the  wrorld    was 
left    with    a    heightened    sense    of    democracy  „  as 
making  for  the  happiness  of  a  nation,  and  with 
the  fervent  hope  that  the  rights  and  liberties  al- 
ready achieved,  howsoever  few  and  limited,  might 
be   but    forerunners    and    stepping-stones    to    still 
greater  victories  for  human  freedom  to  come  with 
the  growth  of  culture  and  progress. 


K: 


CHAPTER  I 

NORTHERN.   CENTRAL  AND  WESTERN  EUROPE 


OF  the  three  countries  constituting  the  Scandi- 
navian Peninsula,  Norway  is  the  one  of  least  im- 
portance for  the  Jews,  while  Denmark  stands  out 
the  more  prominently.  Indeed,  were  it  not  for  Swe- 
den, with  which  country  it  became  politically  united 
early  in  the  nineteenth  century,  there  could  scarcely 
be  said  to  have  been  any  kind  of  Jewish  history  in 
Norway,  the  number  of  Jews  there  even  at  the  end 
of  the  century  being  too  small  (about  500  souls) 
to  form  much  of  a  Jewish  communal  life.  With 
the  union  in  1814  between  Norway  and  Sweden, 
there  immediately  arose  a  Norwegian  Jewish  prob- 
lem, since  according  to  Swedish  law,  now  operative 
also  in  Norway,  foreign  Jews  were  forbidden  to 
settle  in  the  land.  Ever  since  then  the  political  for- 
tunes of  the  Norwegian  Jews  followed  closely  those 
of  their  Swedish  co-religionists,  they  sharing  alike 
in  the  restrictions  and  persecutions  as  well  as  in 
the  emancipation  which  ensued  toward  the  middle 
of  the  nineteenth  century.  In  only  three  cities  in 
Norway,  Christiania,  Trondhjen  and  Bergen,  did 
Jewish  religious  life  assume  an  organized  form,  the 
congregations  being,  however,  too  small  to  play  an 
important  part.  As  is  the  case  with  the  communi- 
ties throughout  Scandinavia,  Norwegian  Jewry  is 
on  the  decline  and  probably  would  have  gone  out 
of  existence  ere  now,  by  the  ordinary  process  of 


2  HISTORY  OF  THE  JEWS 

assimilation  with  and  absorption  into  the  general 
population,  but  for  the  occasional  influx  of  Jewish 
immigrants  from  Russia  and  Poland  which  has 
thus  far  succeeded  in  maintaining  a  semblance  of 
Jewish  life  and  in  staving  off  the  day  of  final  dis- 
solution. 

So,  too,  in  Sweden,  where  a  somewhat  larger 
number  of  Jews  have  for  several  centuries  found 
refuge,  coming  there  from  Germany  and  the  Ibe- 
rian Peninsula,  the  story  is  one  of  gradual  falling 
away  and  disappearance  in  the  maelstrom  of  the 
general  life  of  the  country.     The   fact  that  the 
earliest  record  of  the  Jews  of  Sweden,  in  the  sev- 
enteenth century,  is  that  of  the  baptism  of  several 
Jews  in  the  Lutheran  Church  as  a  condition  of  their 
admission  to  the  country,  is  prophetic  of  nearly  all 
of  the   subsequent  history  of  the   Swedish  Jews 
which  has  been  one  of  continual  dejudaization  as 
the  price  of  political  as  well  as  social  equality.    Un- 
til late  in  the  nineteenth  century  these  Jews  have 
repeatedly  been  constrained  to  buy  the  right  of  res- 
idence in  the  land,  the  privileges  that  were  granted 
to  them  by  the  rulers  from  time  to  time  coming  only 
as  a  reward  for  the  commercial  and  financial  bene- 
fits they  had  conferred  upon  the  state.     Through 
the  influence  exercised  by  Jewish  financiers  upon 
Charles  XII,  who  frequently  resorted  to  them  for 
funds  with  which  to  carry  on  his  many  wars,  that 
monarch  in  1718  threw  his  land  open  to  the  Jews 
and  granted  them  the  right  of  the  free  practice  of 
their  religion.      But  this  permission  had  to  be  re- 
newed from   time   to   time,   indeed   whenever   the 
royal  household  was  in  need  of  money,  which  was 
quite  often.     Freedom  of  movement,  however,  es- 
pecially to  foreign  Jews,  was  greatly  restricted,  it 
being  practically  confined  to  the  three  cities  of 
Stockholm,  Gothenberg  and  Norkkoeping.    No  Jew 
could  engage  in  business  unless  he  possessed  four 


NORTHERN,    CENTRAL   AND   WESTERN    EUROPE  3 

hundred  dollars  if  a  native,  or  not  less  than  eight 
hundred  dollars  if  foreign-born.  At  no  time  did 
Judaism  or  Jewish  learning  thrive  in  Sweden,  nor 
could  the  blame  for  it  be  laid  at  the  door  of  the 
government  which,  once  it  permitted  the  Jews  to 
settle  in  the  land,  rather  encouraged  them  in  the 
cultivation  of  their  religious  life.  For  some  time, 
indeed,  intermarriage,  which  in  the  last  fifty  years 
has  wrought  such  havoc  in  disintegrating  the  Jew- 
ish community,  had  been  forbidden  by  law.  The 
ordinance  of  1782  established  a  number  of  Jewish 
rights  which  in  the  succeeding  decades  were  con- 
siderably augmented  with  the  increase  of  the  Jew- 
ish population  and  the  growth  of  Jewish  wealth. 
This  led  to  jealousy  and  enmity  on  the  part  of  the 
Christian  populace,  culminating  in  anti-Jewish 
demonstrations  in  1838  which  compelled  the  gov- 
ernment to  rescind  the  law  passed  in  that  year  by 
which  the  restrictions  against  the  Jews  had  been 
removed. 

The  feeling  against  the  Jews  now  became  more 
pronounced  in  Sweden,  crystallizing  itself  in  re- 
peated efforts  to  block  the  contemplated  legislative 
measures  favoring  the  Jews.  In  this,  however,  but 
little  success  was  attained,  nor  was  the  number  of 
Jews  in  the  kingdom  at  any  one  time  sufficiently 
great  to  create  a  very  formidable  anti-Jewish  move- 
ment. The  complete  emancipation  of  the  Jews,  in 
accordance  with  the  provisions  of  the  constitution 
applying  to  all  non-Lutherans,  finally  took  place  in 
1860  in  the  ordinance  passed  that  year  granting 
them  the  right  of  acquiring  real  estate  in  the  rural 
districts,  and  in  the  decree  of  1863  by  which  the 
ban  against  their  intermarrying  with  Christians 
was  removed.  This,  as  already  alluded  to,  has  been 
a  boon  of  a  doubtful  nature  so  far  as  the  Jews 
were  concerned,  the  large  number  of  intermar- 
riages that  have  since  taken  place  together  with 


4  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

the  conversions  and  the  general  alienation  from  Ju- 
daism undermining-  the  very  foundation  of  the 
Swedish  Jewish  community.  Like  Norway,  Swe- 
den, too,  has  benefited  by  the  Russo-Jewish  mi- 
gration. Spiritually,  however,  the  Jewish  commu- 
nity of  Sweden  is  a  dependency  of  Germany  by 
whom  it  has  been  influenced  the  most  in  the  de- 
velopment of  its  religious  life.  The  Swedish  rab- 
bis, beginning  with  Levi  Hirsch  who  came  to 
Stockholm  toward  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, all  came  from  German  or  Austrian  theologi- 
cal schools,  as  is  also  the  case  with  Dr.  Marcus 
Ehrenpreis,  the  present  Chief  Rabbi  of  the  five 
thousand  Jews  to-day  resident  in  Sweden. 

Not  very  dissimilar  is  the  story  of  the  Jews  of 
Denmark  whose  beginnings  likewise  date  back  to 
the  seventeenth  century  and  whose  pioneers  were 
also  of  German  and  Sephardic  origin,  the  latter  of 
whom  came  from  Amsterdam,  Here,  too,  Jews 
had  to  secure  the  permanency  of  their  stay  in  the 
country  by  the  offer  of  monetary  loans  to  the  king. 
The  Teixeira  and  De  Lima  families  of  the  latter 
part  of  the  seventeenth  century  are  known  to  have 
had  such  transactions  with  Frederick  III.  Though 
permission  to  hold  religious  exercises  was  granted 
these  Jews  in  Copenhagen  as  early  as  1684,  it  was 
done  on  condition  that  such  services  be  held  behind 
closed  doors  and  that  no  sermons  be  delivered.  In 
the  province  of  Sleswick-Holstein,  which  until  1864 
was  part  of  Denmark,  the  relation  of  the  authori- 
ties to  the  Jews  was  friendlier  than  that  in  other 
parts  of  the  country,  since  the  Jews  came  there 
from  Amsterdam  (1622)  upon  the  direct  invitation 
of  King  Christian  IV,  who  evidently  sought  to 
emulate  in  his  own  kingdom  the  commercial  pros- 
perity he  knew  the  Portuguese  Jews  to  have 
brought  to  the  capital  of  Holland.  Yet  these  Jews 


NORTHERN,    CENTRAL    AND    WESTERN    EUROPE  5 

of  Sleswick-Holstein,  like  all  of  their  co-religion- 
ists, had  to  secure  a  special  "Geleitsbrief,"  or  pass- 
port, whenever  they  wanted  to  travel  through  the 
kingdom.  Jews  were  classed  with  Gipsies  in  the 
law  of  1683,  and  if  any  favorable  distinction  was 
made  it  was  to  grant  special  privileges  to  Portu- 
guese Jews  and  to  deny  them  to  German  Jews. 
This  led  to  much  deception  since  the  Christian  au- 
thorities could  not  well  distinguish  between  the 
two.  There  was  not  wanting  an  attempt  to  create 
a  ritual-murder  case  in  Copenhagen  at  the  close  of 
the  1 7th  century,  and,  as  in  other  more  bigoted 
lands,  Jews,  for  a  time  at  least,  were  not  permitted 
to  keep  Christian  servants  (1725).  On  the  whole, 
however,  the  political  fortunes  of  the  Danish  Jews 
were  better  than  those  of  their  brethren  in  the  rest 
of  the  Peninsula  and  they  kept  steadily  improving, 
culminating  in  their  almost  complete  emancipation 
in  1814.  Anti-Jewishness  as  an  organized  politi- 
cal movement  made  no  headway  in  the  kingdom 
and  wherever  introduced  was  not  countenanced  by 
the  rulers.  This  friendly  attitude  of  the  govern- 
ment had  a  marked  effect  upon  the  development  of 
the  cultural  as  well  as  the  religious  life  of  the  Jews. 
It  hastened  assimilation  and  intermarriage  if  it  did 
not  superinduce  proselytism  to  Christianity,  as  was 
true  of  the  neighboring  lands  where  opposition  to 
the  Jew  on  racial  and  religious  grounds  was  offi- 
cially fostered  and  encouraged. 

Of  larger  numbers  than  their  Swedish  or  Nor- 
wegian co-religionists,  and  more  favored  politi- 
cally and  economically,  the  Danish  Jews  were  in  a 
better  position  to  regulate  their  spiritual  affairs 
and  to  evolve  a  high  measure  of  order  and  decorum 
in  their  organized  religious  life.  In  this  they  had 
the  sanction  as  well  as  the  support  of  the  govern- 
ment, which  made  it  obligatory  for  them  to  have 
all  religious  instruction  in  the  school  and  from  the 


6  HISTORY    OF    THE   JEWS 

pulpit  carried  on  in  the  Danish  language.  The  des- 
ignation of  "Mosaic  religionist"  was  substituted 
for  the  ill-sounding  term  "Jew,"  and  as  there  was 
no  educational  restriction  for  Jews  many  of  them 
availed  themselves  of  the  opportunity  to  acquire  a 
broad  secular  education  in  the  public  schools  and 
university.  A  number  of  eminent  men  were  thus 
produced  in  the  Copenhagen  Jewry  who  shed  lustre 
not  only  upon  their  Danish  co-religionists  but  upon 
other  countries  as  well.  Thus,  late  in  the  i8th 
century  the  Wessely  family  stands  out  preeminent- 
ly, with  branches  in  Glueckstadt  (Sleswick-Hol- 
stein),  Copenhagen  and  Hamburg,  and  with  Xaph- 
tali  Hirz  (Hartwig)  Wessely  (1725-1805),  the 
Hebrew  poet,  moralist  and  educational  reformer, 
as  its  most  noted  representative.  Wessely,  though 
born  in  Hamburg,  had  spent  many  years  of  his 
youth  in  Copenhagen,  where  he  also  married  and 
where  he  acquired  much  of  the  Jewish  and  secular 
learning  which  prepared  him  for  the  great  cultural 
work  he  was  later  to  perform  in  Berlin  in  collabo- 
ration with  Moses  Mendelssohn.  The  Copenhagen 
community  still  cherishes  the  memorable  event  of 
1766,  when  Wessely  returned  to  the  city  to  attend 
the  dedication  of  the  new  synagogue  at  which  he 
delivered  the  oration  and  read  a  poem  he  had  writ- 
ten for  the  occasion.  Another  prominent  Danish 
Jew  was  the  Hebrew  poet  and  scholar  Isaac  Eu- 
chel  (1758-1804)  who,  but  for  the  objection  of 
Emanuel  Kant,  might  have  been  appointed  profes- 
sor of  Oriental  languages  at  the  Koenigsberg  Uni- 
versity, and  who  was  associated  with  Wessely, 
Mendelssohn  and  others  in  the  founding  of  the 
"Ha-Meassef"  magazine,  thus  becoming  one  of  the 
fathers  of  the  Haskalah  movement  in  Germany. 
From  this  it  will  be  seen  that  Danish  Jewry,  like 
that  of  the  rest  of  Scandinavia,  was  greatly  in- 
fluenced by  Germany's  leading  Jews,  and  most  no- 


tably  by  Mendelssohn  and  his  school.  The  educa- 
tional reforms  advocated  by  the  latter  as  a  means 
of  enlightenment  and  political  emancipation  found 
a  responsive  echo  in  Denmark,  and  was  not  with- 
out effect  upon  the  religious  thought  of  the  young- 
er and  more  progressive  elements  in  the  Jewish 
community.  When  the  great  synagogue  of  Copen- 
hagen was  destroyed  by  fire  in  1795,  it  was  for  a 
long  time  found  impossible  to  secure  the  harmoni- 
ous co-operation  of  the  ultra-orthodox  and  the  lib- 
eral factions,  each  of  them  insisting  upon  its  own 
view-point.  The  movement  for  religious  modern- 
ism soon  produced  a  great  leader  in  the  person  of 
Isaac  Noah  Mannheimer  (Copenhagen,  i793-Vi- 
enna,  1865)  who  is  probably  the  most  prominent 
Jew  Denmark  gave  to  the  world,  "the  incarnate  re- 
finement of  Jewry,"  as  Graetz  calls  him.  Enjoy- 
ing the  distinction  of  being  the  first  modern  Jewish 
preacher,  or  "catechist"  in  Denmark,  to  which  of- 
fice he  was  appointed  in  1816,  and  the  first  to  per- 
form the  ceremony  of  confirmation  in  Copenhagen 
(1817),  Mannheimer,  when  but  thirty  years  old, 
was  called  to  Vienna  in  1821,  there  to  make  himself 
immortal  in  Jewish  history  as  the  master-builder 
of  the  modern  Jewish  community  of  the  Austrian 
capital. 

The  successors  of  Mannheimer  in  Copenhagen, 
though  less  gifted  in  oratory,  succeeded  in  welding 
together  the  various  elements  and  in  strengthening 
the  sense  of  unity  of  the  community  to  the  extent 
of  making  possible  in  1833  the  erection  of  a  new 
synagogue.  Radical  Reform,  though  advocated 
and  desired  by  many,  never  found  a  foothold  in 
the  kingdom,  but  instead  official  orthodoxy  itself 
was  sufficiently  influenced  to  permit  the  moderni- 
zation of  many  features  of  the  ritual.  Hence  no 
real  split  ever  occurred  in  Danish  Jewry  since  the 
days  of  Mannheimer.  At  the  same  time  intermar- 


8 

riages  and  conversions  continued  to  take  place,  and 
were  but  little  halted  by  the  granting  of  full  equal- 
ity to  the  Jews  in  1849.  The  growth  of  material 
prosperity  resulted  in  an  increase  of  culture  and 
refinement,  and  many  of  the  Danish  scientists,  art- 
ists and  literateurs  of  the  last  half-century  were 
Jews.  Antisemitism  exists  in  Denmark  in  but  a 
limited  degree,  owing  to  the  proportionately  small 
number  of  Jews  in  the  kingdom.  Jews  have  filled 
high  offices  in  the  government  and  in  the  educa- 
tional institutions  of  the  realm,  and  have  exercised 
a  marked  influence  upon  the  political  and  economic 
thought  of  the  land.  The  leading  Danish  news- 
paper, "Politiken,"  was  for  many  years  edited  by 
Edvard  Brandes,  a  brother  of  Georg  Brandes.  The 
latter  (b.  Copenhagen,  1842)  is  the  best  known 
literary  figure  Denmark  has  yet  produced,  and  as 
the  author  of  "Main  Currents  in  Nineteenth-Cen- 
tury Literature"  in  both  Danish  and  German,  be- 
sides other  important  works,  to-day  ranks  with  the 
foremost  men  of  letters  in  Europe.  At  home  in 
most  of  the  European  languages  and  in  possession 
of  a  thorough  knowledge  of  all  of  their  literatures, 
a  life-long  student  of  philosophy  and  of  the  various 
streams  of  thought  in  his  own  and  in  all  preceding 
times,  a  disciple  of  John  Stuart  Mill  in  philosophy 
and  of  Taine  in  literary  criticism,  an  interpreter  of 
Nietzsche,Lassalle,Disraeli,  Renan  and  other  great 
luminaries,  a  most  voluminous  writer  on  historical 
and  philosophical  themes,  Georg  Morris  Cohen 
Brandes  is  to-day,  at  the  age  of  seventy-five,  still 
the  most  picturesque  literary  personage  in  the 
world  and  one  of  the  few  real  great  men  to  come 
from  Denmark.  Brandes,  however,  has  for  a  long 
time  kept  aloof  from  his  people,  though,  in  contrast 
with  most  assimilationists,  he  has  not  been  devoid 
of  all  sympathy  for  his  race.  The  accident  of 
his  Jewish  birth  has  had  little  effect  upon  his  views 


GEORG  BRANDES 
(b.  1842) 


NORTHERN,    CENTRAL   AND    WESTERN    EUROPE  9 

as  the  citizen  of  the  world  he  proclaims 
himself  to  be.  As  a  humanitarian  he  has 
given  his  talents  mainly  to  fighting  the  battles  of 
other  oppressed  nationalities  and  races  rather  than 
of  his  own  people,  as  was  instanced  in  his  defense 
of  Finland  and  Poland  against  Russia  and  his  si- 
lence on  the  persecution  of  the  Jews  by  all  of  these 
states,  save  for  his  one  attempt  to  defend  the  Jews 
during  the  disastrous  Polish  boycott  (1912).  It 
was  only  very  recently  that  Brandes  experienced  a 
change  of  heart  by  expressing  himself  in  sympathy 
with  Jewish  nationalism. 

Of  the  rabbis  of  Denmark  who  succeeded  Mann- 
heimer,  the  most  prominent  were  A.  A.  Wolff  and 
D.  Simonsen,  both  of  whom  ministered  to  the  Co- 
penhagen community.  That  community  was  also 
for  a  number  of  years  the  seat  of  the  educational 
activity  of  Dr.  Moses  Mielziner,  who  later  be- 
came noted  in  America  as  a  writer  on  Jewish  sci- 
ence and  as  professor  of  Talmud,  and  later  Presi- 
dent, of  the  Hebrew  Union  College  at  Cincinnati. 

We  shall  now  turn  to  Central  and  Western  Eu- 
rope where,  from  the  nature  and  scope  of  the  pres- 
ent work,*  our  historical  review  must  perforce 
begin  at  a  comparatively  late  date,  well  within  the 
second  half  of  the  nineteenth  century.  After  the 
revolutions  of  1848  and  the  extension  of  Jewish 
liberties  on  the  continent,  there  is  for  some  years 
an  apparent  lull  in  the  religious  controversies  that 
have  agitated  the  Jewish  communities  of  Western 
Europe,  particularly  those  of  Germany  and  Aus- 
tria-Hungary, for  the  better  part  of  half  a  cen- 
tury. Israel  in  Europe  was  too  busily  engaged  in 
adjusting  himself  to  the  new  conditions  of  freedom 
to  vigorously  maintain  the  fight  for  religious  re- 
forms. For  many  years  thereafter  conditions  in 
the  synagogue  remain  much  as  they  were  before 
that  memorable  year.  Reform  is,  indeed,  left 

*See  the  Preface  to  this  volume. 


IO  HISTORY    OF    THE   JEWS 

largely  undisturbed  in  most  of  the  places  where 
it  had  found  a  foothold,  but  its  progress  is 
halted.  Berlin,  the  largest  Jewish  centre  of 
Prussia,  did  not  have  a  Reform  temple  till 
1845,  when  the  Reform  "Genossenschaft"  came 
into  being,  nor  has  it  had  any  additional  lib- 
eral synagogues  since  then.  In  Austria,  es- 
pecially in  Vienna  which  boasted  of  eloquent 
preachers  like  Mannheimer  and  Jellinek,  radical 
Reform  was  never  countenanced  or  encouraged, 
while  in  Budapest  where  the  fiery-spirited  and  rev- 
olutionary Ignatz  Einhorn  had  founded  the  Jew- 
ish Reform  Association,  the  movement  was  so 
hampered  in  its  work  by  the  orthodox  element — as 
will  be  told  here  more  fully  in  the  next  few  pages— 
that  the  Government  intervened,  and  Dr.  David 
Einhorn,  who  later  became  prominent  as  a  Reform 
leader  in  the  United  States,  was  compelled  to  aban- 
don his  labors  (1852).  Instead  of  advocating  more 
reforms  and  adding  to  the  already  existing  Reform 
organizations,  there  is  a  tendency  everywhere  to 
conserve  Jewish  learning  as  a  means  for  the  pres- 
ervation intact  of  the  faith.  Both  the  orthodox 
and  the  progressives  are  giving  themselves  to  the 
one  task  of  safeguarding  Judaism  through  the  dis- 
semination of  Jewish  knowledge.  The  golden  era 
of  Jewish  science  which  began  with  Leopold  Zunz 
and  Solomon  Rapoport,  saw  some  of  its  noblest 
fruition  in  the  two  decades  preceding  and  those 
immediately  following  the  revolution,  in  the  writ- 
ings of  Julius  Fuerst,  David  Cassel,  Moritz  Stein- 
sch'neider,  Abraham  Geiger,  Samuel  Hirsch,  Hein- 
rich  Graetz,  Marcus  Jost  and  Abraham  Berliner  in 
Germany — to  mention  but  a  few  from  among  the 
orthodox  and  Reform  camps  alike;  of  Solomon 
Munk,  Joseph  and  Hartwig  Derenbourg,  James  and 
Arsene  Darmesteter,  Jules  Oppert  and  Joseph 
Halevy  in  France;  of  Solomon  Reggio  and  S.  D. 


NORTHERN,    CENTRAL   AND   WESTERN    EUROPE  II 

Luzzatto  in  Italy;  of  Adolf  Neubauer  in  England, 
and  of  Solomon  Buber,  S.  H.  Halberstamm,  I.  H. 
Weiss  and  Meyer  Friedman  in  Austria.  A  place 
of  special  distinction  in  this  movement  belongs  to 
Ludwig  Philippson  (Dessau,  i8n-Bonn,  1889) 
who  in  1853  founded  in  Berlin  the  "Institute  for 
the  Promotion  of  Israelitish  Literature"  with  the 
assistance  of  M.  Jost  and  Adolf  Jellinek,  then  of 
Leipzig.  In  its  eighteen  years  of  existence  this 
organization  published  more  than  eighty  prominent 
wrorks  from  the  pen  of  the  most  eminent  Jewish 
scholars  of  the  times. 

Another  factor  in  the  work  of  strengthening  and 
conserving  Judaism  was  the  establishment  of  theo- 
logical seminaries  for  the  training  of  rabbis  and 
preachers.  The  first  rabbinical  seminary  in  Ger- 
many, that  of  Breslau,  was  founded  in  1854  under 
the  leadership  of  Zacharias  Frankel  and  with  a 
faculty  consisting  of  scholars  of  distinction  like 
Heinrich  Graetz,  Manuel  Joel,  Jacob  Bernays  and 
Benedict  Zuckermann.  This  school  preceded  by 
nearly  two  decades  the  opening  of  the  two  sem- 
inaries of  Berlin,  the  "Lehranstalt  fuer  die  Wissen- 
schaft  des  Judenthums"  (1872),  and  the  "Rab- 
binerseminar"  which  was  established  at  about  the 
same  time  the  "Hebrew  Union  College"  of  Cin- 
cinnati was  opened  (1873).  The  "Landesrabbin- 
erschule"  of  Budapest  was  founded  in  1877,  while 
the  theological  "Lehranstalt"  of  Vienna  was 
opened  only  in  1893.  These  training  schools  for 
rabbis  were  intended  to  supplement  if  not  to  sup- 
plant the  old-fashioned  Yeshibot  which  had  been 
found  inadequate  for  the  demands  of  modern  con- 
gregational life.  The  position  of  the  rabbi  as  the 
representative  of  his  people  before  the  world  at 
large  grew  in  importance  with  the  emancipation  of 
the  Jews,  and  it  was  justly  believed  that  an  aspirant 
to  the  rabbinate  should  be  equipped  with  a  liberal 


12  HISTORY   OF   THE   JEWS 

measure  of  secular  culture  in  addition  to  the  neces- 
sary Jewish  learning.  The  Seminary,  as  distinct 
from  the  Yeshibah,  was  not  necessarily  a  school  of 
advanced  theological  thought,  some  of  these  institu- 
tions being  even  distinguished  for  the  conservatism 
of  their  teaching.  In  France,  where  the  rabbinical 
seminary  had  been  in  existence,  in  Metz,  since  1824 
(transferred  to  Paris  in  1859),  and  in  Italy  where 
the  Padua  school  was  founded  in  1827,  Reform 
was  scarcely  known.  Nevertheless,  it  was  through 
these  institutions  that  modernism  found  its  way 
into  the  synagogue  with  the  effect  of  at  least  touch- 
ing the  surface  of  Jewish  life  where  it  failed  to 
influence  formal  Jewish  doctrine.  Thus  in  many  of 
the  French  and  Italian  communities,  as  in  most  of 
the  German  congregations,  Orthodoxy  is  officially 
sustained  and,  in  a  more  or  less  modernized  form, 
steadfastly  practiced  in  the  synagogue,  yet  is  not 
often  observed  in  its  minutiae  in  the  private  life  of 
the  Jew. 

Here,  too,  Germany,  the  land  where  Reform  saw 
the  light  of  day,  now  becomes  the  leader  in  the 
movement  which,  like  the  Counter-Reformation  of 
the  Catholic  Church,  aimed  at  the  frustration  of 
Reform  and  the  strengthening  of  Orthodoxy  by 
the  building  up  of  a  great  orthodox  party,  one  that 
remained  strictly  loyal  to  the  "Shulhan  Arukh" 
teachings,  at  the  same  time  as  it  sought  to  place 
Orthodoxy  itself  in  a  more  attractive  form  through 
better  organization,  and  modernized  the  service  at 
least  to  the  extent  of  making  the  sermon  in  the 
vernacular  a  welcome  if  still  optional  feature  of 
the  service.  This  movement  gained  impetus 
through  the  activity  of  the  learned  Dr.  Samson 
Raphael  Hirsch  (1808-1888),  the  already  noted 
author  of  the  "Nineteen  Letters  of  Ben  Uziel" 
(1836)  who  in  1851  had  become  the  rabbi  of  the 
"Israelitish  Religious  Society"  of  Frankfort-on- 


NORTHERN/ CENTRAL   AND    WESTERN    EUROPE  13 

the-Main    and,    by    his    learning    and    eloquence, 
his    moral    leadership    and    the    uncompromising 
spirit    he    evinced    in    his    writings    against    Re- 
form,    soon     became     the     acknowledged     head 
of     the     orthodox     forces     in     Germany.       His 
congregation    grew    most    rapidly,     in    a    short 
time   becoming   the   largest   of   its  kind   in   Ger- 
many.   He  established  a  parochial  school  in  which 
Jewish  children  received  both  a  secular  and  a  thor- 
oughly religious  education,  and  by  means  of  his 
monthly    magazine,    the    "Jeschurun,"    he    struck 
sledge-hammer  blows  at  Reform  which  he  desig- 
nated   as    an    un-Jewish    movement    and    a    dan- 
ger   to    the    Jewish    race.      His    theological    pro- 
gramme   he    laid   down   in   the   very    first    num- 
ber   of    his    periodical:      "True    and    pure    Ju- 
daism   is    to    be    found    only    in    the    camp    of 
extreme  Orthodoxy,  and  only  he  is  a  true  Jew 
who  painstakingly  follows  all  the  prescriptions  of 
the  mediaeval  rabbis,  and  of  the  'Shulhan  Arukh' 
and  its  commentators."    Far  greater  than  the  dif- 
ferences in  existence  between  the  various  sects  of 
Christendom  was,  in  his  estimation,  the  gulf  sep- 
arating Reform  from  orthodox  Judaism.     Having 
found  so  valiant  and  capable  a  leader,  the  orthodox 
in  Germany  now  became  bolder,  and  what  they 
could  not  accomplish  peacefully,  by  means  of  moral 
suasion,    they   often   sought   to   achieve    through 
force,  by  invoking  the  aid  of  the  government.    At 
the  instance  of  the  orthodox  party  of  Berlin  a  pe- 
tition was  presented  in  Parliament  (1851)  looking 
to  the  strengthening  of  the  state's  influence  over 
the  inner  affairs  of  the  Jewish  community,  but, 
though  warmly  championed  by  Wagener,  was  corn- 
batted  by  the  Catholics  no  less  than  by  the  Lib- 
erals of  the  Reichstag  as  an  infringement  upon  the 
religious  liberties  of  the  people.     In  Posen  the  po- 
lice was  besought  to  close  the  Reform  Temple, 


14  HISTORY    OF    THE   JEWS 

which  it  did,  while  in  Mecklenburg-Schwerin,  where 
the  majority  of  the  Jews  were  friendly  to  the  Re- 
form movement,  the  government,  always  on  the 
side  of  the  conservatives,  interfered  to  check  the 
growth  of  religious  liberalism  and  appointed  as 
Chief-Rabbi  the  ultra-orthodox  Dr.  Bernhard 
Lippschuetz  whom,  however,  it  some  time  later  was 
compelled  to  remove  (1856)  from  office  owing  to 
his  utter  incapacity  and  inactivity  in  the  perform- 
ance of  his  duties.  A  similar  interference  of  the 
government  in  the  inner  affairs  of  the  Jews  was  at 
about  this  time  witnessed  in  Vienna  where  the  gov- 
ernment would  not  permit  the  liberal  elements  to 
build  their  new  synagogue  except  on  condition  that 
it  be  placed  under  the  control  of  the  general  com- 
munity (1855).  Sporadic  efforts  toward  religious 
reforms  were  made  in  a  number  of  centres,  as  was 
instanced  by  the  conference  of  the  French  Rabbis 
in  1856  in  Paris,  at  which  a  programme  of  limited 
and  optional  reforms  was  adopted,  and  by  the 
slowly  moving  progress  of  religious  liberalism  in 
England  which  resulted  in  the  founding  of  Reform 
synagogues  in  Manchester  and  in  Bradford.  Gen- 
erally, however,  the  times  were  not  propitious  for 
a  rapid  growth  of  Reform  in  Europe,  unlike  the 
United  States  where  it  was  then  fast  approaching 
the  high-water  mark  of  its  success  and  bid  fair  to 
become  the  dominant  phase  of  Jewish  religious  life 
in  America. 

That,  however,  the  leaven  of  religious  liberalism 
was  at  work  in  the  Jewries  of  Western  Europe  can 
be  seen  from  the  action  taken  by  the  Berlin  com- 
munity in  1854  in  defeating  the  leaders  of  the  neo- 
orthodox  party  in  the  elections  of  that  year,  which 
eventually  led  to  the  resignation  from  office  of  Dr. 
Michael  Sachs,  the  eloquent  and  erudite  rabbi,  who 
had  stubbornly  opposed  the  few  mild  ritualistic  in- 
novations that  had  been  proposed.  Nevertheless, 


NORTHERN,    CENTRAL    AND    WESTERN    EUROPE          1 5 

the  leaders  of  Orthodoxy  remained  on  the  alert, 
and  new  forces  were  coming  to  the  fore  to  protect 
its  interests.  The  infiltration  into  Germany  of  a 
number  of  intellectuals  (Maskilim)  from  Russia 
with  their  knowledge  of  Hebrew  and  Talmud, 
though  themselves  not  avowedly  orthodox,  aided 
the  cause  of  conservatism  by  bringing  about, 
though  in  a  somewhat  limited  measure,  a  renewed 
interest  in  Hebrew  learning.  From  Zhagory,  in 
the  Government  of  Kovno,  came  Senior  Sachs 
(1816-1893),  the  renowned  Talmudist,  to  take  up 
his  studies  at  the  university  of  Berlin,  there  to 
meet  Zunz  and  the  other  celebrities  of  the  day  and 
to  enter  upon  a  number  of  scholarly  Hebrew  enter- 
prises. He  founded  the  "Ha-Tehiyah"  (The  Ren- 
aissance), a  magazine  dealing  with  mediaeval  He- 
brew writings,  the  "Ha-Yonah"  (The  Dove),  like- 
wise |or  scientific  Jewish  researches,  edited  some 
of  Zunz's  writings,  and  even  attempted  to  revive 
the  "Kerem  Hemed"  which  had  ceased  publication 
in  Prague  in  1843.  He  continued  publishing  it 
from  1854  to  1856  when  it,  too,  shared  the  fate  of 
his  other  literary  ventures,  and  Sachs  was  com- 
pelled to  remove  to  Paris,  there  to  continue  his  lit- 
erary labors  for  many  more  years.  In  the  Prussian 
border  city  of  Lyck,  Eliezer  Silbermann  in  1856 
founded  the  "Ha-Maggid,"  the  first  politico-liter- 
ary Hebrew  weekly  which,  while  it  exercised  its 
greatest  influence  in  Russia  where  lived  the  major- 
ity of  its  readers,  also  had  a  following  in  Germany. 
Around  it  rallied  the  forces  opposed  to  the  ultra- 
liberals,  and  in  1864,  due  to  its  initiative  and  prop- 
aganda, was  established  the  "Mekize  Nirdamim" 
society  for  the  issuing  of  old  Hebrew  books  and 
manuscripts.  In  opposition  to  the  work  and  ten- 
dency of  Philippson's  "Institute  for  the  Promotion 
of  Israelitish  Literature,"  the  "Mekize  Nirdamim" 
aimed  at  giving  to  the  world  such  works  as  had  a 


l6  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

particular  interest  for  the  orthodox,  the  Talmudist 
and  student  of  Jewish  philosophy.  To  give  it  as 
wide  a  scope  as  possible,  and  to  enhance  the  im- 
portance of  its  work,  the  society  was  international- 
ized, having  as  its  directors  Dr.  Nathan  Adler,  Sir 
Moses  Montefiore  and  Joseph  Zedner  of  London; 
Albert  Cohn  of  Paris;  S.  D.  Luzzatto  of  Padua; 
Dr.  Michael  Sachs  of  Berlin,  and  Matthias  Stras- 
chun  of  Vilna.  It  has  rendered  invaluable  services 
to  the  cause  of  Jewish  literature  in  bringing  to 
light  many  old  and  forgotten  or  even  unknown 
works  by  authors  both  known  and  obscure.  It  has 
long  survived  Philippson's  "Institute"  and  until 
shortly  before  the  outbreak  of  the  Great  War  in 
1914  was  still  active  in  Berlin  whither  it  had  re- 
moved from  Lyck  after  the  death  of  Silbermann. 

The  liberal  tendencies  of  German  Jewry  had 
found  great  support  in  Ludwig  Philippson's  organ, 
the  "Allgemeine  Zeitung  des  Judentums"  which  he 
had  edited  since  1837.  It  was  furnished  added 
strength  in  Geiger's  theological  review,  "Wissen- 
schaftliche  Zeitschrift  fuer  Juedische  Theologie" 
(established  1835)  and  in  his  later  publication, 
"Juedische  Zeitschrift  fuer  Wissenschaft  und  Le- 
ben"  (1862-1874).  The  lack  of  unity  and  unanimity 
among  the  liberals  was,  however,  making  itself 
sadly  felt.  The  leaders  of  Reform  recognized  the 
need  of  organization  and  of  concerted  effort,  and 
various  attempts  were  made  to  unite  all  the  liberal 
elements,  with  but  scant  success.  The  "Verein 
fuer  die  allgemeinen  religioesen  Interessen  des 
Judentums,"  founded  by  Geiger  and  Philippson  in 
1865  in  Frankfort-on-the-Main,  was  short-lived. 
Yet  it  led  to  the  convening  of  the  Cassel  rabbinical 
conference  of  1868  and  of  the  celebrated  synods  of 
Leipzig  (1869)  and  Augsburg  (1871).  The  main 
object  of  these  gatherings  was  to  clarify  the  the- 
ological situation,  adopt  a  number  of  much-needed 


PROF.  MORITZ  LAZARUS 
(1824-1903) 


NORTHERN,    CENTRAL    AND    WESTERN    EUROPE          \J 

school  reforms,  draw  up  articles  of  faith  and  de- 
cide upon  uniformity  in  matters  of  ritual  and  wor- 
ship. Whatever  the  resolutions  adopted,  however, 
they  were  not  carried  out.  The  congregations  that 
participated  in  the  synods  were  indifferent  to  their 
aims,  and  lent  them  but  a  lukewarm  support. 
Though  a  number  of  eminent  laymen  were  among 
the  delegates  present,  headed  by  Professor  M.  Laz- 
arus of  Berlin,  the  lay-world  as  a  whole  cared  but 
little  for  the  doings  and  declarations  of  these  syn- 
ods, whose  only  effect  was  to  widen  the  breach 
between  the  orthodox  and  Reform  elements.  The 
leaders  of  neo-orthodoxy  were  not  slow  to  seize 
upon  the  opportunities  thus  presented  for  renewing 
their  attacks  upon  Reform  with  added  zest  and 
vigor.  Foremost  among  these  was  Dr.  Israel 
Hildesheimer  (Halberstadt,  i82O-Berlin,  1899),  a 
gifted  scholar  and  capable  organizer,  who  splen- 
didly combined  in  himself-  the  spirit  of  Talmudic 
Orthodoxy  and  of  modern  learning.  Fresh  from 
his  triumphant  achievements  as  rabbi  in  Hungary 
where  he  had  fought  many  a  battle  with  the  leader 
of  the  Reform  party.  Dr.  Leopold  Loew,  and  where, 
despite  the  opposition  of  the  fanatical  orthodox 
who  put  him  under  the  ban,  he  had  built  up  a 
strong  orthodox  party  whose  programme  was  "a 
faithful  adherence  to  traditional  teachings  com- 
bined with  an  effective  effort  to  keep  in  touch  with 
the  spirit  of  progress,"  Hildesheimer  went  to  Ber- 
lin in  1869  for  the  avowed  purpose  of  opposing  and 
thwarting  the  reform  labors  of  Dr.  Geiger  who 
had  been  called  there  as  rabbi  of  the  liberal  com- 
munity. Due  to  his  efforts  Berlin  soon  became  the 
rival  of  Frankfort  as  a  stronghold  of  German  Or- 
thodoxy. He  opened  a  religious  school  in  which 
children  were  given  a  thoroughly  traditional  train- 
ing, and  established  in  1873  a  seminary  for  the 
education  of  rabbis  in  opposition  to  the  liberal 


1 8  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

"Hochschule  fuer  die  Wissenschaft  des  Juden- 
turns"  which  was  opened  in  that  city  in  the  pre- 
vious year  under  the  leadership  of  Geiger  and  Laz- 
arus. Kind  and  gentle  in  disposition  toward  all 
men,  Hildesheimer  was  yet  adamantine  on  the  ques- 
tion of  Orthodoxy,  though  he  refrained  from  em- 
ploying the  methods  of  vilification  and  abuse  in- 
dulged in  by  the  more  fanatical,  notably  Rabbi 
Lehmann  of  Mayence  in  his  weekly  publication,  the 
"Israelit."  The  popularity  of  Hildesheimer  and 
his  personal  magnetism  can  be  judged  from  the 
fact  that  his  seminary  attracted  students  from 
countries  outside  of  Germany,  many  of  them  com- 
ing from  among  his  own  former  pupils  in  Hungary. 
The  closing  fifties  of  the  iQth  century  saw  the 
hey-day  of  Jewish  progress  in  Europe  since  the 
upheavals  of  1848  and  the  constitutional  liberties 
in  which  they  resulted.  The  various  countries 
were  too  busy  consolidating  their  interests  and 
arranging  their  internal  affairs  to  direct  much  at- 
tention to  the  Jews  who,  in  consequence,  were  en- 
abled to  place  their  house  in  order  without  much 
interference  from  the  outside.  The  favorable  out- 
come of  the  .Crimean  War  made  England  more 
powerful  than  ever  in  the  countries  of  Europe, 
and  the  prosperity  of  the  nation  as  a  whole  re- 
acted favorably  upon  the  English  Jews,  resulting 
in  the  removal  of  whatever  disabilities  they  were 
still  laboring  under.  The  Jews'  Disabilities  Bill 
was  passed  by  Parliament  in  1858  and  Baron 
Lionel  de  Rothschild  was  the  first  Jew  to  be 
seated  that  year  in  Parliament  without  being  com- 
pelled to  take  the  customary  oath  "on  the  true 
faith  of  a  Christian."  This  heralded  the  com- 
plete and  final  political  victory  of  the  Jews  of  the 
Island  Kingdom  over  the  forces  of  reaction,  and 
it  had  a  favorable  effect  upon  the  position  of  the 
Jews  in  neighboring  lands.  In  Prussia  the  Re- 


NORTHERN,   CENTRAL  AND  WESTERN   EUROPE  IQ 

gency  of  Wilhelm,  later  first  Emperor  of  Ger- 
many, established  in  1858,  led  to  the  greater  lib- 
eralization of  that  country  while  the  defeat  of 
Austria  at  the  hands  of  the  Italians  and  the  rise 
of  a  new  and  constitutional  Italian  state  affected 
the  position  of  the  Jews  of  those  lands.  Jewish 
wealth  grew  apace  with  the  extension  of  their 
freedom,  and  the  opening  up  to  them  of  new  op- 
portunities of  education  resulted  in  the  coming  to 
the  fore  of  a  number  of  men  and  women  who  be- 
came noted  for  their  achievements  in  nearly  ev- 
ery branch  of  literature,  art  and  science.  The 
historic  hatred  of  the  Jew,  while  it  lingered  on 
and  here  and  there  led  to  unpleasant  and  some- 
times tragic  incidents,  on  the  whole  was  kept  in  a 
state  of  suppression  by  the  newly-framed  laws, 
and  where  it  broke  out  in  virulent  form  had  the 
effect  of  furthering  the  solidarity  of  the  Jews  in 
all  lands  and  of  bringing  them  closer  to  each 
other  for  mutual  self-protection.  The  Mortara 
case  (1858)  led  to  the  founding  in  Paris  of  the 
"Alliance  Israelite  Universelle"  (1860),  and  was 
followed  by  the  organization  of  similar  bodies, 
acting  as  its  auxiliaries,  in  Berlin,  Vienna,  Lon- 
don, and  Cincinnati.  Eventually  we  are  to  see 
this  sense  of  unity  weaken,  and  Jewish  loyalty 
give  way  before  a  wave  of  assimilation  originat- 
ing in  abject  and  cowardly  self-interest.  At  the 
period  in  question,  however,  the  flame  of  brother- 
hood, nurtured  by  the  as  yet  unwavering  devotion 
to  faith,  still  burns  bright  in  Jewish  souls,  and 
Israel  in  Europe  largely  presents  a  cheering  pic- 
ture of  a  race  emancipated  and  doing  its  utmost 
to  prove  itself  worthy  of  the  newly-acquired  free- 
dom. 

In  at  least  one  Central  European  country  did 
the  struggle  between  Reform  and  Orthodoxy  as- 
sume larger  proportions  and  grow  in  sharpness 


2O  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

and  bitterness  in  contrast  with  the  situation  every- 
where else — in  Hungary.  Hungarian  Jewry  had 
long  incurred  the  displeasure  of  the  Austro-Hun- 
garian  government  owing  to  the  prominent  part 
many  of  its  members  had  played  in  the  revolu- 
tionary struggle.  A  special  Jewish  division  was 
mobilized  in  Budapest  against  the  Croatians  in 
the  summer  of  1848,  marching  off  to  the  battle 
front  under  the  words  of  blessing  pronounced  by 
Rabbi  Schwab.  To  the  Jews  of  Hungary  the  suc- 
cess of  the  revolution  meant  their  complete  eman- 
cipation under  the  law,  and  chief  among  the  ad- 
vocates for  the  removal  of  Jewish  disabilities  was 
the  leader  of  the  revolution,  Louis  Kossuth.  This 
was  also  the  prime  goal  of  the  Reformers  who 
entertained  the  hope  of  seeing  all  legal  discrimina- 
tion removed  from  their  race  by  a  radical  change 
in  synagogal  worship.  Thus  it  came  about  that 
the  Jewish  Reform  movement  in  Hungary  was  in 
a  large  sense  a  revolutionary  movement,  and 
among  the  active  participants  in  the  struggle  were 
Reform  leaders  like  the  above-mentioned  Rabbi 
Ignatz  Einhorn,  founder  of  the  liberal  congrega- 
tion of  Budapest,  Dr.  Leopold  Rockenstein,  rabbi 
of  the  temple  at  Grosswarddein,  who  rose  to  the 
rank  of  lieutenant  in  the  revolutionary  army, 
Moses  Bruck  of  Nagy-Becskerek,  who  also  was 
an  officer,  and  Dr.  Adolf  Huebsch,  who  subse- 
quently became  rabbi  in  New  York.  The  politi- 
cal hopes  of  these  men  were  indeed  realized  when 
the  Hungarian  national  assembly  wThich  met  in 
Szeged  in  July,  1849,  adopted  a  bill  granting  full 
citizenship  to  the  Jews.  But  the  failure  of  the 
revolution  a  few  weeks  later,  owing  to  the  mili- 
tary intervention  of  Czar  Nicholas  I  of  Russia, 
nullified  this  as  well  as  the  other  laws  framed  by 
the  assembly.  The  uprising  was  put  down  with 
fire  and  s\vord  and  the  Jews  were  made  to  feel 


NORTHERN,    CENTRAL    AND    WESTERN    EUROPE          21 

the  heavy  hand  of  an  avenging  government.  Many 
of  them  were  imprisoned,  some  were  executed,  and 
heavy  war-taxes  were  imposed  upon  a  number  of 
communities,  the  ones  to  suffer  the  most  being 
those  of  Budapest  and  Alt-Ofen.  Only  after 
much  petitioning  did  the  young  emperor  Francis 
Joseph,  who  had  only  a  short  time  previously  as- 
cended the  throne,  agree  to  remit  the  tax  on  con- 
dition that  the  Jews  raise  a  fund  of  1,000,000 
Gulden  for  Jewish  educational  purposes — a  condi- 
tion they  were  glad  to  comply  with. 

The  attention  of  the  government  was  now  to 
be  directed  to  the  Reformers,  who  were  made  to 
feel  the  severity  of  its  vindictiveness.  Ignatz  Ein- 
horn,  with  many  others,  was  compelled  to  flee  the 
country,  wandering  through  many  lands,  sojourn- 
ing in  Leipzig,  Brussels  and  Paris,  and  returning 
to  his  native  land  only  after  twenty  years  of  ex- 
ile, there  again  to  become  active  in  public  life. 
But  in  the  interim  his  Reform  labors  had  to  be 
abandoned.  The  Reform  Society  of  Budapest 
was  suppressed  by  the  government  in  1852,  Dr. 
David  Einhorn,  who  succeeded  Ignatz  Einhorn 
as  preacher,  going  to  America.  The  ultra-ortho- 
dox elements  made  use  of  the  political  situation 
to  thwart  the  efforts  of  their  liberal  co-religion- 
ists, the  attitude  of  the  government  enabling  them 
to  take  a  bold  stand.  Religious  zeal  made  them 
forget  that  the  safety  of  their  race  lay  in  the 
unity  and  co-operation  of  all  of  its  members.  Aus- 
tria's defeat  at  the  hands  of  the  Italians  in  1859 
put  a  stop  to  the  era  of  absolutism  in  Hungary, 
and  the  government  of  Francis  Joseph  was  now 
ready  to  grant  a  number  of  concessions,  including 
an  extension  of  the  rights  of  the  Jews.  In  the 
Diet  convened  by  the  emperor  in  1861  this  ques- 
tion was  indeed  formally  brought  up,  but  a  dis- 
united Jewry  allowed  the  favorable  moment  to 


22  HISTORY   OF    THE    JEWS 

pass  unused,  and  the  Diet  soon  dissolved,  post- 
poning- the  emancipation  of  the  Jews  for  six  more 
years.  When  in  1864  it  was  proposed  to  estab- 
lish a  rabbinical  seminary  for  the  better  preserva- 
tion of  Judaism,  the  project  was  frowned  upon  by 
the  orthodox  who  regarded  it  as  a  subterfuge  for 
the  liberalist  propaganda,  and  the  emperor  acted 
in  accord  with  their  wishes  and  refused  his  sanc- 
tion to  the  plan.  An  even  more  unenviable  part 
was  played  by  the  newly-formed  orthodox  party 
"Shomere  Ha-Dat"  (Preservers  of  the  Faith)  in 
1868.  At  the  instance  of  Baron  Joseph  Eotvos, 
the  Minister  of  Public  Worship,  a  congress  of 
representative  Jews  was  called  in  February  of 
that  year  in  Budapest  for  the  regulation  of  in- 
ternal Jewish  affairs  in  keeping  with  the  spirit  and 
purpose  of  the  emancipation  bill  which  had  been 
passed  in  parliament  several  weeks  previously.  The 
plans  and  resolutions  adopted  by  this  congress  were 
of  a  preliminary  nature,  and  were  left  for  discus- 
sion to  the  General  Jewish  Congress  which  the 
king  called  at  Budapest  on  December  14  of  that 
year.  The  "Shomere  Ha-Dat"  betook  themselves 
sceptically  to  this  congress,  owing  no  doubt  to  the 
circumstance  that  the  majority  of  the  delegates 
belonged  to  the  liberal  class,  all  possible  objections 
were  raised  to  its  proceedings,  and  a  bitter  oppo- 
sition to  the  regulations  it  had  adopted  was  or- 
ganized in  the  provincial  communities.  It  was 
only  with  great  difficulty  that  a  compromise  was 
reached  between  the  liberals  and  the  more  mod- 
erate of  the  orthodox,  led  by  the  wise  counsel  of 
Dr.  Israel  Hildesheimer.  Eventually,  however,  the 
split  between  the  two  factions  became  so  wide  as 
to  make  co-operation  impossible,  and  in  1871,  with 
the  approval  of  the  emperor,  the  orthodox  com- 
munities of  Hungary  formed  their  own  central  or- 
ganization in  contradistinction  to  the  Congress 


NORTHERN,    CENTRAL    AND    WESTERN    EUROPE          23 

organization,  each  of  these  bodies  administering 
the  religious  and  educational  affairs  of  the  con- 
gregations within  its  control. 

But  if  Reform  could  boast  of  a  measure  of  suc- 
cess in  certain  parts  of  Austria-Hungary,  its 
progress  in  another  part  of  the  empire,  namely 
Galicia,  was  made  unusually  difficult  and  well-nigh 
impossible.  It  has  ever  been  Galicia's  unenviable 
lot  to  act  as  a  mere  intermediary  for  progress 
without  retaining  much  of  it  herself.  The  Men- 
delssohnian  Haskalah  movement  found  Galicia 
but  a  mere  halting  place  before  it  made  its  way 
into  Russia,  notwithstanding  that  some  of  the 
most  prominent  Maskilim  like  Nahman  Krochmal, 
Solomon  Rapoport,  Joseph  Perl,  and  Isaac  Erter, 
came  from  that  land.  The  intellectuals  of  Galicia 
always  remained  a  class  by  themselves  without  be- 
ing able  to  influence  the  general  population.  The 
beginnings  of  Reform  in  Galicia  go  back  to  Jo- 
seph Perl's  activity  in  introducing  a  modern  serv- 
ice in  the  synagogue  he  founded  in  Tarnapol 
alongside  of  the  German  school  established  by  him 
in  1815.  But  the  sad  fate  of  Rabbi  Abraham 
Kohn,  the  liberal  preacher  of  Lemberg,  who  was 
poisoned  in  1848  at  the  hands  of  fanatical  oppo- 
nents, served  as  a  due  warning  to  others.  The 
seat  and  stronghold  of  "Hassidism,"  and  complete- 
ly under  the  sway  of  the  "Zaddikim,"  or  wonder- 
working rabbis,  Galicia  has  to  this  day  remained 
immune  to  all  libera.1  influences  in  religious  and 
Jewish  education,  with  the  exception  of  Cracow, 
where  a  Jewish  School  is  conducted  on  modern 
lines,  and  where  at  least  one  synagogue  exists 
with  a  modernized  service  and  with  a  rabbi  of 
liberal  education,  in  the  person  of  Dr.  Osias  Thon, 
as  its  preacher.  Politically,  Galician  Jewry  has 
ever  remained  the  step-child  of  the  empire,  many 
of  the  Polish  municipalities  withholding  for  many 


24  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

years  from  the  Jews  the  rights  which  were  theirs 
under  the  constitution  of  1861.  To  Cracow  be- 
longs the  distinction  of  producing  a  great  leader 
and  statesman  in  the  person  of  the  renowned  or- 
thodox rabbi  Dob  Berush  Meisels  (died  in  War- 
saw, 1870).  So  great  was  the  respect  and  ad- 
miration felt  for  him  by  Jews  and  Christians  alike 
that  he  was  chosen  as  one  of  the  twelve  senators 
of  Cracow  in  1846,  and  in  1848  was  elected  as 
member  of  the  Austrian  Reichsrath  from  his  home 
city.  When  he  took  his  seat  in  parliament  he  had 
the  courage  of  affiliating  with  the  radicals  (the 
"Left")  of  that  body  on  the  ground  of  the  right- 
lessness  of  the  Jews. 

The  severity  with  wrhich  the  Austrian  govern- 
ment was  inclined  to  treat  the  Jews  of  Hungary 
it  for  a  time  refrained  from  manifesting  toward 
the  Jews  of  Austria  proper.  The  revolution  of 
1848  had  the  effect  of  immediately  improving  the 
condition  of  the  Jews.  Free  exercise  of  religion 
was  granted  in  the  constitution  adopted  that  year 
and  soon  thereafter  all  special  Jew  taxes  were 
abolished.  No  less  than  five  Jews  were  elected  to 
the  first  Austrian  parliament  including  the  learned 
Rabbi  Isaac  Noah  Mannheimer  besides  the  above- 
mentioned  Rabbi  Meisels.  A  wave  of  reaction 
came  with  the  succession  to  the  throne  of  Francis 
Joseph  who  on  March  4,  1849,  proclaimed,  with- 
out consulting  parliament,  a  new  constitution 
which  he  again  repealed  on  December  31,  1851. 
Some  of  the  restrictions  that  had  been  removed 
were  again  brought  into  force,  and  the  malevo- 
lence with  which  the  government  regarded  all  ef- 
forts at  religious  reforms  was  shown  in  the  order 
issued  on  August  5,  1855,  forbidding  Austrian 
Jews  to  join  Ludwig  Philippson's  "Institute  for 
the  Promotion  of  Israelitish  Literature."  The 
decade  of  1849-59  is  one  of  incessant  oppression, 


NORTHERN,    CENTRAL    AND    WESTERN    EUROPE         25 

the  government  reviving-  old  anti-Jewish  decrees 
and  adding  new  ones.  Clericalism  was  once  again 
in  the  ascendant,  and  its  influence  made  itself  felt 
in  the  municipalities  throughout  Austria  and  the 
provinces  where  the  authorities  invariably  inter- 
preted the  laws  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  Jews, 
some  of  them  even  calling  into  force  the  obsolete 
legislation  of  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries. 
The  victorious  Italian  arms  in  1859  wrested  lib- 
erty for  the  Jew  from  the  unwilling  hands  of 
Francis  Joseph  and  his  reactionary  ministers.  Im- 
mediately after  the  peace  of  Villafranca  (July  n) 
a  more  benevolent  policy  came  in  vogue.  Despite 
the  vigorous  opposition  of  the  Catholic  leaders, 
Jewish  rights  were  greatly  extended  by  the  par- 
liamentary legislation  of  1860.  Two  Jews,  Ku- 
randa  and  Winterstein,  were  that  year  elected  to 
the  Reichsrath,  and  in  the  following  year  Baron 
Anselm  von  Rothschild  was  appointed  by  the  em- 
peror as  a  member  of  the  House  of  Lords.  In 
the  war  with  Prussia  in  1866  the  Jews  of  Austria 
distinguished  themselves  on  the  battlefield  and  in 
1867  Winterstein  was  elevated  to  the  position  of 
Minister  of  Commerce.  The  final  emancipation 
of  the  Jews  came  with  the  constitution  adopted  on 
December  21,  1867.  Clericalism's  influence  was 
now  unmistakably  on  the  wane,  so  much  so  that 
persons  who  were  Catholics  by  birth  and  rearing 
could,  under  the  new  legislation,  withdraw  from 
the  Church.  Jews  could  now  be  raised  to  the 
hereditary  nobility  and  take  up  their  homes  in  all 
sections  of  the  empire  hitherto  closed  to  them. 

Like  victories  for  liberalism  were  seen  in  the 
neighboring  countries,  notably  in  France,  where  in 
1860  the  Jews  could  boast  of  nearly  200  officers 
and  a  great  many  physicians  in  the  army,  and 
where  in  that  same  year  a  Jew,  Achille  Fould,  was 
appointed  by  Napoleon  III  Minister  of  Finance, 


26  HISTORY    OF   THE   JEWS 

succeeding  in  this  office  another  Jew,  Michel  Goud- 
chaux.  With  the  fall  of  the  monarchy  in  1870 
the  position  of  the  100,000  Je\vs  of  France  be- 
came even  more  firmly  established.  Adolphe  Cre- 
mieux  was  for  a  second  time  appointed  Minister 
of  Justice.  Jews  were  appointed  Prefects  or 
Chiefs  of  Departments,  and  by  special  statutory 
provision  in  1872  Jewish  officers  and  soldiers  in 
the  army  were  allowed  the  freedom  of  staying 
away  from  their  duties  on  the  Jewish  Sabbath  no 
less  than  on  the  holidays.  This  friendly  attitude 
of  the  French  government  had  its  effect  not  only 
upon  the  Jews  of  the  Republic  but  upon  those  of 
the  colonies,  notably  of  Algeria,  who,  in  1866,  had 
acquired  the  right  of  becoming  citizens  of  France, 
a  right  which  was  corroborated  and  broadened  by 
additional  legislation  in  1870.  Since  then  the 
Jews  of  Algeria,  in  contrast  with  the  Mohamme- 
dan population  of  the  land,  became  ardent  lovers 
and  admirers  of  France  to  whose  language  and 
culture  they  assiduously  applied  themselves  and 
made  them  their  own. 

Holland,  too,  long  friendly  to  the  Jews,  followed 
in  the  wake  of  the  new  liberalism  and  imitated 
the  example  of  France  by  appointing,  in  1860,  the 
head  of  the  Jewish  Consistory,  M.  H.  Godefroi,  as 
Minister  of  Justice,  besides  admitting  Jews  to 
other  high  offices  in  the  government,  the  Judici- 
ary, and  the  universities.  In  Italy,  the  emanci- 
pation of  the  Jews  followed  immediately  upon  the 
success  of  the  Italian  arms  against  Austria  in 
1859  and  the  unification  of  the  kingdom  under 
the  rule  of  the  House  of  Savoy.  Many  Jews 
joined  the  Sardinian  and  Italian  armies  as  officers 
and  privates,  and  a  number  of  them  fought  under 
Garibaldi.  In  Sicily  the  rights  of  the  Jews  were 
established  as  soon  as  the  land  was  freed  from 
Austrian  dominion,  and  when  Venice  was  ceded 


NORTHERN,    CENTRAL    AND    WESTERN    EUROPE         27 

by  Austria  in  1866  a  Jew,  I.  P.  Maurongonato, 
was  elected  as  a  member  of  parliament  and  as 
vice  president  of  the  Chamber.  At  that  time  there 
were  about  43,000  Jews  in  Italy — not  including 
Rome — constituting  67  communities  with  108 
houses  of  worship  and  41  rabbis.  In  April,  1867, 
there  took  place  a  conference  of  Italian  Jews  in 
Florence,  participated  in  by  representatives  of 
twenty  of  the  largest  Jewish  communities  of  the 
land,  which  deliberated  on  many  matters  of  im- 
portance to  Italian  Jewry,  and  particularly  on  the 
future  of  the  rabbinical  seminary  at  Padua.  That 
the  spiritual  life  of  Italian  Jewry  was  astir  as 
never  before  could  be  seen  from  the  increased  pro- 
duction of  Jewish  literature  in  the  Italian  lan- 
guage and  the  appearance  of  new  periodicals.  Al- 
ready in  1853  Italian  Jews  possessed  a  popular 
monthly  review  called  "L'Educatore  Israelita," 
which  was  published  at  Vercelli.  This  was  sup- 
plemented in  1863  by  the  more  scientific  "Corriere 
Israelitico"  of  Triest,  the  founder  of  which  was 
Abraham  Vita  Marpurgo,  and  among  its  contrib- 
utors being  the  celebrated  S.  D.  Luzzatto,  Lelio 
della  Torre,  and  their  pupils  of  the  rabbinical 
school.  An  attempt  made  in  1866  to  publish  in 
Livorno  a  monthly  organ  for  extreme  Orthodoxy, 
entitled  "L'Israelita,"  under  the  editorship  of  L. 
Racah,  was,  however,  unsuccessful,  it  ceasing  pub- 
lication after  a  year's  existence. 

All  this  time,  however,  the  old  city  of  Rome  re- 
mained unincluded  within  the  confines  of  the 
newly-created  Kingdom  of  Italy,  and  there,  the 
last  stronghold  of  the  Pope's  temporal  rule,  me- 
diaeval ideas  of  intolerance  toward  the  Jews  still 
held  sway.  The  walls  of  the  Ghetto  still  remained 
erect,  and  Jews  could  not  enter  the  holy  city  ex- 
cept by  special  permit.  Persecutions  and  coercive 
baptisms  continued,  notwithstanding  the  storm  of 


28  HISTORY    OF    THE   JEWS 

indignation  raised  by  the  Mortara  case.  As  late 
as  July  in  18/0  the  Jews  of  Rome  vainly  besought 
the  Pope  to  lighten  this  intolerable  burden.  The 
days  of  Papal  dominion,  however,  were  numbered, 
for  in  September  of  that  year  the  troops  of  King 
Victor  Emanuel  entered  Rome  which  four  months 
later  became  the  capital  of  a  united  Italy.  The 
opening  up  and  destruction  of  the  Ghetto  followed 
as  a  matter  of  course.  To-day  one  of  the  most 
magnificent  structures  in  the  imperial  city  is  that 
of  the  new  synagogue,  erected  on  the  site  of  the 
former  Ghetto  (built  in  1901).  The  irony  of  fate 
had  it  that  in  this  very  city,  which  had  brought 
about  the  downfall  of  the  Jewish  state  and  for  so 
many  centuries  had.  been  the  very  source  and  cen- 
tre of  nearly  all  the  evil  machinations  against  the 
Jewish  race  throughout  Europe,  a  Jew  was  des- 
tined to  rule  as  Mayor  only  within  a  generation 
after  the  passing  of  Rome  from  under  the  do- 
minion of  the  Pope.  This  man  was  Ernesto 
Nathan,  who  was  twice  elected  Chief  Magistrate 
of  Rome,  a  man  noted  for  his  unyielding  opposi- 
tion to  the  Clerical  party  and  the  Papacy.  The 
abolition  of  the  Roman  Ghetto  led  to  the  reor- 
ganization of  the  Jewish  community  with  a  con- 
sequent renewal  of  interest  in  Jewish  spiritual 
matters.  The  rabbinical  college  of  Padua  having 
been  abandoned  following  the  death  of  S.  D.  Luz- 
zatto,  it  was  in  1887  reopened  in  Rome,  headed 
by  Rabbi  Mortara  of  Mantua.  Later  it  was 
transferred  to  Florence,  where  the  noted  rabbi  of 
the  community,  Dr.  S.  H.  Margulies,  assumed 
charge  of  its  affairs. 

Italy  is  to-day  probably  the  most  hospitable  of 
countries  in  Europe  for  the  Jews,  there  being  less 
of  anti-Jewish  sentiment  among  the  Italians  than 
anywhere  else.  She  gratefully  remembers  the  he- 
roic self-sacrifice  of  her  Jewish  sons  in  her  hour 


NORTHERN,    CENTRAL    AND    WESTERN    EUROPE         2Q 

of  need,  the  many  Jewish  soldiers  who  took  part 
in  the  several  wars  for  Italian  liberation  and 
whose  names  appear  in  the  various  monuments 
alongside  those  of  their  Christian  comrades.  In 
Venice  a  memorial  in  bronze  has  been  erected  to 
the  above-mentioned  Isaac  Pesaro  Maurogonato, 
who  was  Minister  of  Finance  to  the  Venetian  re- 
public during  the  war  of  1848,  while  in  the  pal- 
ace of  the  doges  there  is  a  marble  bust  of  Samuel 
Romanin,  the  Jewish  historian  of  Venice.  Isaac 
Artom,  of  Piedmont,  was  secretary  to  Count  Ca- 
vour,  while  Mazzini  counted  among  his  faithful 
friends  and  advisers  L'Olper,  who  later  became 
rabbi  of  Turin  and  who  was  noted  for  his  devo- 
tion to  the  cause  of  Italian  freedom.  Italy  was 
first  among  the  nations  of  Eurppe  to  entrust  un- 
converted Jews  with  the  highest  offices  in  the  gov- 
ernment, two  such  Jews,  Leone  Wollenberg  and 
Luigi  Luzzatti,  having  served  as  Ministers  of 
Finance,  while  another  Jew,  General  Ottolenghi, 
served  as  Minister  of  War — all  of  them  in  the 
opening  years  of  this  century. 

Switzerland  long  presented  a  unique  situation 
in  that  the  Je\vish  question  there  was  complicated 
with  the  foreign  politics  of  the  republic.  Jews  had 
been  living  in  the  various  cantons  since  the  thir- 
teenth century,  and  the  beginning  of  their  liberties 
date  back  to  the  French  Revolution.  Actual  eman- 
cipation, however,  came  but  slowly,  though  as  far 
back  as  the  Council  of  Helvetia  (1798-1799)  the 
granting  of  full  civic  equality  to  the  Jews  had 
been  urged  by  many  of  the  prominent  men  of  the 
confederation.  Before  granting  full  rights  to  her 
own  Jews,  Switzerland  gave  such  rights  only  to 
the  foreign  Jews  within  her  boundaries  as  a  re- 
sult of  commercial  treaties  entered  into  with 
several  European  Powers  and  with  the  United 
States.  These  treaties  were  often  violated,  elicit- 


3O  HISTORY    OF   THE   JEWS 

ing  protests  on  the  part  of  the  countries  whose 
nationals  had  thus  been  maltreated.  The  treat- 
ment of  the  Jews  in.  the  Catholic  cantons  of  the 
confederation  being  particularly  severe,  the  Jews 
of  other  lands  were  aroused  to  action  in  behalf 
of  their  co-religionists  and  in  the  United  States 
the  Rev.  Dr.  I.  M.  Wise,  then  of  Albany,  issued 
in  1852  "A  Call  to  the  American  Israelites"  to 
unite  in  a  petition  to  the  American  Congress  to 
intercede  in  behalf  of  those  Jews.*  When,  in 
1855,  a  treaty  was  arranged  between  the  United 
States  and  Switzerland,  the  provisions  of  Article 
I  read:  "The  citizens  of  the  United  States  of 
America  and  the  citizens  of  Switzerland  shall  be 
admitted  and  treated  upon  a  footing  of  reciprocal 
equality  in  the  two  countries  where  such  admis- 
sion and  treatment  shall  not  conflict  with  the  con- 
stitutional or  legal  provisions,  federal  as  well  as 
state  and  cantonal,  of  the  contracting  parties." 
This  left  a  loophole  to  the  Swiss  government  to 
continue  her  practice  of  discrimination  against 
American  Jews.  In  spite  of  repeated  protests  on 
the  part  of  leading  American  Jews  the  treaty  was 
ratified,  though  this  did  not  become  known  until 
1857  after  the  American  Minister  at  Berne,  The- 
odore S.  Fay,  had  given  expression  to  the  opinion 
that  no  American  Jew  could  obtain  redress  in 
Switzerland  if  any  of  the  cantons  persisted  in 
denying  him  the  right  of  domicile  and  other  priv- 
ileges. But  little  satisfaction  could  be  had  from 
the  American  State  Department.  The  Jews  of 
America,  however,  led  by  Dr.  Wise  in  his  weekly 
organ,  the  "Israelite,"  carried  on  a  strong  agita- 
tion and  succeeded  in  enlisting  for  the  cause  many 
of  the  influential  journals  of  the  day.  In  various 
parts  of  the  country  indignation  meetings  were 


*  Published  in  the  "Asmonean,"  New  York,  Vol.  VI.,  No.  6. 


NORTHERN,    CENTRAL    AND    WESTERN    EUROPE         3! 

held,  culminating  in  the  assembling  of  a  Jewish 
convention  on  October  28th  of  that  year  in  the 
city  of  Baltimore,  at  which  delegations  from 
many  states  were  present.  They  decided  to  pre- 
pare a  memorial  on  the  subject  to  be  presented  to 
the  President  of  the  United  States,  and  three 
days  later  the  committee  appointed,  consisting  of 
M.  J.  Cohen,  M.  Bijur,  and  Isaac  M.  Wise,  ap- 
peared before  President  Buchanan  who,  after  lis- 
tening to  all  of  the  views  expressed,  assured  the 
Jewish  representatives  that  justice  would  be  done. 
He  at  once  instructed  Minister  Fay  to  take  up  the 
matter  with  the  Swiss  government.  Fay  went  so 
far  as  to  interview  Mr.  Furrer,  the  Swiss  Presi- 
dent, and  to  obtain  his  assurance  that  the  matter 
would  be  laid  before  the  Federal  Council.  Grad- 
ually the  various  Swiss  cantons  removed  the  pre- 
vailing restrictions  against  the  American  Jews. 
But  this  had  the  further  effect  of  influencing  the 
position  of  all  Jews,  whether  native  or  foreign, 
living  in  Switzerland. 

The  growth  of  liberalism  in  government  circles 
in  many  of  the  Swiss  cantons  was  evidenced  by 
the  fact  that  at  least  four  Jewish  professors  were 
in  1861  on  the  faculty  of  the  university  of  Berne, 
among  them  the  renowned  Moritz  Lazarus,  later 
of  Berlin.  Zuerich  not  only  had  a  Jew,  Max 
Buedinger,  as  professor  of  history  in  its  univer- 
sity, but  even  sent  another  Jew,  by  the  name  of 
Dubs,  as  a  member  of  the  Federal  Council.  Un- 
fortunately, the  liberalism  of  the  upper  and  gov- 
ernment circles  toward  the  Jews  led  to  much  jeal- 
ousy and  intolerance  on  the  part  of  the  general 
populace.  When  the  Aargau  canton,  with  but 
two  Jewish  communities  at  Endingen  and  Len- 
genau,  decided  in  May  of  1862  to  grant  equality 
of  citizenship  to  its  Jews,  the  Catholic  ultramon- 
tane element  became  greatly  aroused  and  its  agi- 


32  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

tation  led  to,  the  dissolution  of  the  Great  Council 
of  the  canton.  At  the  elections  which  followed, 
however,  the  overwhelming  Protestant  element  of 
the  canton  carried  the  day  and  installed  in  power 
the  liberal  party  which  had  shown  friendliness  to 
the  Jews.  Only  the  year  before,  the  Aargau  gov- 
ernment approved  the  appointment  as  rabbi  of 
Dr.  Meyer  Kayserling  (Hanover,  i82Q-Budapest, 
1905)  who  had  already  attained  distinction  as  the 
author  of  the  life  of  Moses  Mendelssohn  and  sev- 
eral noted  works  on  the  history  of  the  Jews  in 
Spain.  Kayserling,  who  remained  in  Switzerland 
till  called  to  the  rabbinate  of  Budapest  in  1870, 
was  an  indefatigable  worker  for  the  cause  of 
Jewish  emancipation  in  the  republic  and  its  ulti- 
mate success  was  in  no  small  measure  due  to  his 
efforts. 

The  example  of  Zuerich  and  Aargau  was  soon 
followed  by  the  Solothurn  and  Schaffhausen  can- 
tons which  in  1865  repealed  the  restrictions  on 
the  free  settlement  of  the  Jews,  and  by  Thurgau 
which  granted  the  right  of  free  settlement  to  all 
in  1866.  At  the  same  time  steps  were  taken  by 
the  federal  government  for  the  removal  of  dis- 
abilities from  foreign  Jews  by  special  commercial 
treaties  with  the  governments  of  the  neighboring 
states,  such  treaties  favoring  the  Jews  being  con- 
cluded in  1865  with  the  German  states  and  in 
1867  with  France.  It  was  in  1865  that  plans 
were  formulated  for  changes  in  the  Swiss  consti- 
tution whereby  equality  was  to  be  granted  to  all 
irrespective  of  religious  creed.  A  vote  on  this 
was  taken  in  January,  1866,  when  the  Swiss  peo- 
ple demonstrated  at  the  poles  its  willingness  to 
emancipate  the  Jews  of  the  land.  The  new  consti- 
tution adopted  in  1873  confirmed  the  action  taken 
seven  years  before  on  the  question  of  Jewish 
rights. 


NORTHERN,    CENTRAL   AND    WESTERN    EUROPE          33 

Aside  from  the  general  feeling  of  dislike  against 
the  Jew,  of  which  Switzerland  cannot  be  said  to 
have  more  than  any  other  country  but  which  will 
here  and  there  spring  up  largely  as  the  result  of 
agitation  from  the  outside,  the  Swiss  republic  is 
to-day,  as  it  has  been  for  the  past  few  decades,  a 
most  hospitable  land  to  the  Jews.  The  one  great 
grievance  of  its  Jews,  the  prohibition  of  Shehita, 
or  the  ritual  slaughter  of  animals,  was  accom- 
plished partly  through  Anti-semitic  propaganda 
but  more  especially  at  the  instance  of  the  "Aar- 
gau  Society  for  the  Prevention  of  Cruelty  to  Ani- 
mals." By  the  popular  vote  taken  on  the  ques- 
tion in  August,  1893,  ritual  animal  slaughter  was 
declared  constitutionally  illegal  throughout  Switz- 
erland. In  many  other  respects  Switzerland  has 
proved  herself  a  blessing  to  the  Jewish  race.  It 
was  in  the  city  of  Bazel  that  the  Zionists,  under 
the  leadership  of  Theodore  Herzl,  convened  their 
first  congress  in  1897  after  having  been  denied 
the  hospitality  of  the  city  of  Munich.  To  the 
persecuted  Jews  of  Russia  Switzerland  has  for  the 
past  fifteen  years  held  out  a  helping  hand  in 
welcoming  the  large  number  of  Jewish  students  to 
her  high  schools  and  universities,  thus  affording 
them  those  educational  facilities  which  they  had 
grievously  been  denied  by  their  mother-country. 

Thus  was  the  position  of  the  Jews  of  nearly 
every  land  of  Europe,  barring  Russia  and  Rou- 
mania,  a  rather  promising  one  at  the  beginning  of 
the  seventies.  Their  political  emancipation  as- 
sured, their  economic  position  strengthened,  they 
had  little  cause  to  regard  the  future  in  the  light 
of  uncertainty.  That  the  progress  of  liberalism 
could  be  halted,  that  civilization  itself  could  be 
aligned  with  the  forces  of  darkness  rather  than 
with  those  of  enlightenment,  its  natural  ally,  was 
deemed  most  improbable.  Yet  it  was  when  the 


34  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

skies  seemed  clearest  for  European  Israel  that 
the  clouds  of  Antisemitism  began  to  mount  the 
horizon.  It  appeared  in  Germany  as  a  result  of 
party  strife  between  the  ultramontane  clericals 
and  the  liberals,  or  more  plainly,  between  the  re- 
actionaries who  came  mostly  from  the  Catholic 
Church,  and  the  progressives  to  whom  belonged 
also  the  Jewish  members  of  the  Reichstag.  Bis- 
marck, then  at  the  height  of  his  power  as  a  result 
of  his  personal  triumph  in  carrying  the  war  with 
France  to  success,  seized  upon  the  occasion  to 
enhance  the  feeling  of  hatred  against  the  Jews 
to  further  his  own  political  ends.  Soon  political 
Antisemitism,  destined  later  to  become  "scientific" 
Antisemitism,  engulfed  the  whole  of  the  empire 
and  in  no  small  measure  influenced  the  position 
of  the  Jews  of  other  countries  as  well. 

Modern  Antisemitism  differs  from  the  earlier 
and  especially  the  mediaeval  form  of  Jew-hatred 
in  that  it  is  directed  against  the  Jews  as  a  race 
rather  than  as  a  religious  community.  The  religious 
differences,  to  be  sure,  were  the  prime  and  real 
cause,  now  as  before,  a  circumstance  corroborated 
by  the  fact  that  conversion  to  Christianity  will 
whitewash  the  Jew  from  all  stains,  racial  no  less 
than  religious.  Yet  for  the  modern  Antisemite 
Judaism  is  only  the  sign  whereby  the  race  of  the 
Jew  can  be  detected.  Not  that  it  makes  any 
real  difference  to  him,  his  dislike  for  the  religion 
of  the  Jew  being  just  as  potent  as  ever.  But  the 
Antisemite  is  a  paradoxical  creature.  Though  a 
rabid  reactionary  he  at  the  same  time  lays  claim 
to  being  a  progressive,  and  the  fact  that  within 
his  clan  are  included  men  of  letters,  scholars  of 
repute  and  scientists  of  note,  lends  an  air  of  truth- 
fulness to  his  claim.  To  attack  and  persecute  the 
Jew  on  purely  religious  grounds  is,  obviously,  not 
in  keeping  with  the  boasted  advance  of  reason 


NORTHERN,  CENTRAL  AND  WESTERN  EUROPE          35 

and  enlightenment  so  gloriously  inherited  by  west- 
ern Europe  from  the  French  Revolution.  More- 
over, since  Judaism  was  not  the  only  religion  ill- 
tolerated  in  the  various  European  states,  and  since 
the  placing  of  Judaism  on  a  basis  of  equality  with 
all  other  religions  was  only  a  logical  sequence  of 
the  struggle  for  liberty  of  conscience  long  waged 
by  all  of  the  nations,  to  make  it  a  special  target 
of  attack  as  a  reason  for  withholding  political 
rights  from  the  Jews  would  be  to  endanger  the 
very  foundation  of  the  structure  of  religious  lib- 
erty, thus  reacting  against  the  vital  interests  of 
the  people  for  whose  ostensible  benefit  Antisem- 
itism  was  operating.  The  object  remained  the 
same  but  the  tactics  and  methods  had  to  be 
changed.  Fortunately  for  the  enemies  of  Israel, 
the  Jew,  truly  enough,  constituted  a  more  or  less 
homogeneous  racial  factor  in  all  the  lands  of  his 
sojourn,  and  herein  the  Antisemite  saw  his  oppor- 
tunity. It  was,  after  all,  only  following  ancient 
precedents,  since  as  far  back  as  the  days  of  Aha- 
suerus,  Haman  sought  the  destruction  of  the  Jews 
on  the  ground  of  their  being  a  people  different 
from  the  rest  of  the  population  whose  "laws  are 
diverse  from  all  people,  neither  keep  they  the 
King's  laws."  In  its  vindictive  malice  Antisem- 
itism  knows  no  distinctions  of  time  and  space.  In 
this  Apion  was  at  one  with  Drumont,  Tacitus 
with  Pobyedonostseff.  Indeed,  no  better  proof 
that  modern  Antisemitism  is  a  most  retrograde 
movement  need  be  sought  than  the  circumstance 
that  it  falls  back  upon  the  very  arguments  used 
by  the  Jew-haters  of  thousands  of  years  ago. 

The  'jew,  says  the  Antisemite,  is  "different" 
from  others,  but,  more  than  that,  his  difference  is 
such  as  to  make  him  a  menace  to  the  well-being 
of  the  land  in  which  he  lives.  He  has  never 
ceased  being  an  Asiatic  and  no  matter  what  his 


36  HISTORY  OF  THE  JEWS 

efforts  to  amalgamate  with  his  Aryan  neighbors 
they  must,  even  if  for  no  fault  of  his,  remain  fu- 
tile. Because  of  his  cosmopolitan  experience  and 
his  native  intelligence  sharpened  by  centuries  of 
adversity,  the  Jew  has  become  an  instinctively 
grasping  creature  with  whose  methods  of  astute- 
ness and  cunning  the  gentile  can  not  compete.  He 
thus  prefers  to  live  by  his  wits  alone,  rather  than 
by  the  honest  toil  of  his  hands,  and  to  make  use 
of  the  achievements  of  others  for  his  personal 
gain  rather  than  create  his  own  opportunities. 
He,  in  other  words,  is  a  parasitic  growth  on  the 
body  politic  and  economic  of  the  Aryan  world. 
Being  "an  empire  within  empire,"  and  constitut- 
ing a  united  cosmopolitan  race  whose  bank- 
ers exercise  control  over  the  world's  international 
finances,  it  is  but  natural  that  he  should  be  lack- 
ing in  patriotism  to  the  country  of  his  birth,  aside 
from  the  fact  that  he  is  devoid  of  all  courage  and 
sense  of  honor  and  as  such  cannot  be  depended 
on  in  times  of  national  danger.  Hence  Europe 
can  have  no  inner  peace  so  long  as  the  Jew  con- 
tinues in  her  midst.  Such  are  some  of  the  many 
arguments  at  all  times  used  by  the  professional 
Jew-haters  on  any  and  every  occasion. 

Yet  with  all  their  emphasis  upon  the  Jew  as  a 
racially  dangerous  element,  it  is  clear  that  the 
root  of  the  Antisemitic  evil  is  theological  rather 
than  ethnic  and  that  it  harks  back  to  the  mediaeval 
idea  of  the  church  as  the  all-dominant  factor  in 
the  life  of  a  nation.  So  long  as  the  state  finds  it 
convenient  and  profitable  to  encourage  the  doc- 
trine of  a  "Christian  Nation,"  and  to  prate  about 
and  uphold  a  specifically  "Christian"  civilization, 
the  Jew  must  logically  and  inevitably  remain  an 
exotic  even  in  the  land  where  he  has  made  his 
home  for  many  centuries.  We  have  seen  it  even 
in  democracies  like  the  United  States  where  the 


FERDINAND  LASSALL 


NORTHERN,    CENTRAL    AND    WESTERN    EUROPE         37 

formation  of  numerically  large  and  politically 
strong  organizations  whose  slogan  is  that  of  being"  a 
"Christian"  nation,  made  for  indubitable  prejudice 
against  the  non-Christian  elements.  In  a  coun- 
try ruled  by  an  autocracy  of  howsoever  limited  a 
form  whose  safety  and  very  life  depend  upon  the 
continuance  of  class  distinctions,  it  is  only  too 
likely  that  such  a  doctrine  will  receive  the  en- 
couragement of  the  government  which  will  not  be 
averse  to  using  it  for  the  maintenance  of  the  old 
divisions  and  the  fomenting  of  new  prejudices,  if 
its  interests  can  profit  thereby. 

In  Germany,  after  the  Franco-Prussian  War, 
the  ruling  classes  began  to  feel  alarm  at  the 
growth  of  liberal  ideas  about  government  as  a 
result  of  the  Socialistic  propaganda  and,  not  alto- 
gether unjustly,  saw  in  this  the  hand  of  the  Jews. 
Receiving  their  full  emancipation  with  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  North  German  Confederation 
(1869)  and  the  founding  of  the  empire  in  the 
following  year,  the  Jews  who  saw  in  liberalism 
the  greatest  safeguard  of  their  liberties  became  its 
foremost  champions,  and  often  made  themselves 
obnoxious  to  the  government  through  their  prop- 
aganda. Aaron  Bernstein  (1812-1884),  one  of 
the  greatest  and  most  versatile  minds  German 
Jewry  has  produced,  long  occupied  a  formidable 
position  as  a  liberal  by  his  work  as  editor  of  the 
daily  "Volkszeitung"  of  Berlin.  In  the  revolution 
of  1848  the  part  taken  by  the  German  Jews  was 
considerable  and  some  of  their  leaders,  like  Ed- 
uard  Lasker  and  Ludwig  Bamberger,  later  be- 
came powerful  protagonists  of  liberalism  in  the 
Reichstag.  Socialism  itself  was  largely  a  product 
of  the  Jewish  mind.  In  theory  and  scientific 
analysis  it  was  the  work  of  Karl  Marx,  while  as 
a  political  factor  in  the  empire  it  claims  another 
Jew,  Ferdinand  Lassalle,  as  its  organizing  genius. 


38  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

Eduard  Bernstein,  the  leader  of  the  Socialist 
Democratic  party,  began  to  show  his  great  talents 
of  leadership  in  the  early  seventies,  when  he  first 
identified  himself  with  the  Socialist  party.  It  be- 
came apparent  that,  in  order  to  weaken  the  liberal 
movement  the  Jew  had  to  be  discredited  so  that 
his  influence  might  be  destroyed.  The  opportu- 
nity for  doing  so  presented  itself  in  the  course  of 
the  "Kulturkampf,"  or  the  fight  on  the  alleged 
immoral  influence  of  the  educational  methods  of 
the  Catholics.  It  should  be  remembered  that 
Catholic  Germany  had  for  some  years  considered 
itself  a  victim  of  Jewish  aggressiveness.  Some 
of  the  German  states,  notably  those  of  the  South 
with  its  large  Catholic  population,  had  not  been 
wholly  in  favor  of  amalgamation  with  the  North- 
ern states  for  the  formation  of  the  German  Em- 
pire, fearing  the  preponderating  influence  of  Prot- 
estant Prussia  in  the  government  of  such  an  em- 
pire. To  counteract  this  opposition  Bismarck,  the 
builder  of  modern  Germany,  had  allied  himself, 
since  1867,  with  the  liberals,  thus  securing  the 
necessary  parliamentary  majorities  for  his  project. 
And  since  the  Jews  were  identified  with  the  lib- 
erals, though  they  were  not  necessarily  opposed 
to  the  Catholics  because  of  it,  the  impression  pro- 
duced upon  the  latter  was  to  the  effect  that  the 
Jews  were  unitedly  inimical  to  them.  The  legis- 
lation affecting  the  Jesuit  orders  of  Germany  and 
their  educational  work  served  to  further  incense 
the  clericals  both  within  the  empire  and  out  of  it. 
Numerous  malevolent  influences  had  been  at  work 
to  fan  the  flame  into  a  conflagration.  In  1871 
the  notorious  August  Rohling  of  Prague  pub- 
lished his  "Talmud  Jew"  ("Der  Talmudjude"),  a 
garbled  variation  of  Eisenmenger's  "Judaism  Re- 
vealed" ("Entdecktes  Judenthum").  Widely  circu- 
lated and  extensively  quoted  in  the  Catholic  press, 


NORTHERN,  CENTRAL  AND  WESTERN  EUROPE       39 

the  work  was  now  seized  upon  by  the  Antisemites 
as  a  valuable  weapon  for  their  own  infamous 
propaganda.  On  February  8,  1872,  the  Prussian 
Diet  legislated  that  the  control  of  the  schools  be 
placed  in  the  hands  of  the  State.  This  act  added 
fuel  to  the  flame.  The  clerical  organs  of  Rome, 
Vienna,  and  other  large  Catholic  centres  printed 
inflammatory  anti-Jewish  diatribes  which  had  a 
far-reaching  effect  upon  Catholics  everywhere,  and 
the  worst  blow  to  fall  upon  the  Jews  came  from 
the  very  foremost  seat  of  Catholic  authority,  from 
Pope  Pius  IX,  who  shortly  before  Christmas,  in 
1872,  delivered  a  vehement  anti-Jewish  address 
before  the  dignitaries  of  the  Curia,  directing  his 
statements  mainly  at  the  Jewish  journalists,  who, 
he  claimed,  were  responsible  for  the  irreligiosity 
and  low  moral  tone  of  the  press.  A  few  months 
later  the  Pope  elaborated  upon  his  first  attack  in 
another  address  in  which  he  branded  all  Jews  as 
the  money-lusting  enemies  of  Christ  and  Chris- 
tianity, who  are  to  blame  for  all  the  slanders  and 
accusations  that  had  been  levelled  against  the 
Church.  It  is  clear  that  the  object  of  the  pontiff 
was  to  shield  the  Church  against  further  attack, 
and  to  stay  the  onward  march  of  anti-clericalism 
which  was  now  making  itself  felt  in  a  number  of 
lands,  by  using  the  old  methods  resorted  to  by 
despotism  whenever  it  sees  itself  in  danger,  that 
of  singling  the  Jews  out  for  scorn  and  persecu- 
tion. His  words  fell  like  sledge-hammer  blows 
wherever  Catholics  were  in  power.  In  France  a 
number  of  Jews  occupying  high  government  posi- 
tions were  summarily  dismissed,  while  the  Cath- 
olic journals  of  all  lands  raged  against  the  Jews, 
those  of  Italy  clamoring  for  their  disfranchise- 
ment  as  the  one  condition  of  conciliation  between 
the  Vatican  and  the  State.  In  Germany,  how- 
ever, this  agitation  had  a  still  more  deplorable 


4O  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

effect.  Here  the  leaders  of  the  Centrist,  or  Cler- 
ical, party  in  parliament  organized  an  Anti-Jew- 
ish campaign  in  which,  declaring  them  as  enemies 
of  all  Christendom,  they  aimed  at  setting  against 
the  Jews  not  only  the  Catholics  but  the  Protes- 
tants as  well.  Their  slogan  was:  "Liberalism  is 
purely  the  concern  of  the  Jews  and  their  [Chris- 
tian] servitors,"  and  in  repeated  articles  in  their 
numerous  organs  they  pointed  out  that  Germany 
was  in  danger  of  falling  a  helpless  prey  to  the 
Jews. 

This  anti-Jewish  campaign  of  the  German  Cath- 
olics, instigated  and  abetted  by  the  Vatican  itself, 
was  eminently  successful  in  making  this  universal 
moral  obsession  known  as  judophobeia  a  burning 
national  issue.  Beginning  with  1878,  German 
Antisemitism  enters  upon  its  political  phase,  des- 
tined to  dominate  German  thought  and  opinion 
for  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century  during  which 
time  it  created  a  wide  and  scarcely  bridgeable 
chasm  between  the  Jews  and  their  neighbors,  and 
brought  untold  hardships  and  sufferings  upon  the 
race.  All  the  gains  of  the  various  struggles  for 
Jewish  emancipation  may  be  said  to  have  been  un- 
done by  this  movement  which  succeeded  in  mak- 
ing itself  so  obnoxious  to  the  economic  interests 
of  Germany,  and  brought  such  discredit  upon  the 
reputation  of  the  land  as  to  cause  many  respect- 
able Christians,  from  a  sense  of  shame  for  their 
country  and  of  fear  for  its  welfare  to  organize 
in  1891  a  society  of  defense  against  Antisemitism, 
all  the  members  of  which  were  Christians.  In 
connection  with  this  political  anti-Jewish  crusade, 
three  sadly  prominent  names  stand  out  from 
among  the  rest  of  the  agitators  as  having  done 
the  greatest  amount  of  mischief:  Bismarck, 
Stoecker  and  Treitschke. 

Otto    von    Bismarck    (1815-1898)    was    indubi- 


KARL  MARX. 


NORTHERN,    CENTRAL    AND    WESTERN    EUROPE         4! 

tably  the  brains  of  the  movement  in  its  new  po- 
litical complexion  who,  because  of  his  vast  power 
and  influence  as  Imperial  Chancellor,  was  able  to 
steer  it  successfully  within  the  desired  channel, 
though  probably  not  even  he  had  anticipated,  even 
as  he  may  not  have  desired  it,  that  it  would  as- 
sume such  a  virulent  form  and  lead  to  such  dis- 
astrous results.  Bismarck  was  not  always  unfa- 
vorably disposed  to  the  Jews,  though  as  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Junker  party  he  doubtless  had  inher- 
ited the  traditional  prejudices  of  his  class  toward 
the  race.  While  Minister  of  State  in  Prussia  he 
did  not  oppose  the  acquisition  of  greater  freedom 
by  the  Jews  as  a  result  of  the  1848  uprisings,  and 
it  was  during  his  administration  as  chancellor  of 
the  North  German  Federation  that  the  law  of 
July  3,  1869,  was  adopted,  removing  all  civil,  po- 
litical and  religious  disabilities  from  any  and  all 
classes  of  the  population.  On  several  occasions 
he  raised  his  voice  in  defence  of  the  constitution- 
al rights  of  German  Jews,  and  both  in  1868,  and 
ten  years  later  at  the  Congress  of  Berlin,  he  went 
on  record  as  championing  the  cause  of  the  Jews 
of  Roumania.  But  Bismarck  was  a  politician  to 
whom  the  interests  of  his  party  and  the  success 
of  his  imperialistic  programme  came  above  all 
other  considerations.  Socialism  in  Germany  was 
making  too  much  headway  for  the  comfort  of  the 
government,  and  as  the  Conservative  or  Catholic 
party  of  the  Reichstag  was  then  strongly  en- 
trenched through  its  anti-Jewish  agitation,  Bis- 
marck deemed  it  expedient  to  turn  from  the  lib- 
erals and  ally  himself  with  the  reactionaries. 
Though  he  admired  the  intelligence  of  the  Jews 
and  appreciated  the  aid  he  had  received  from  the 
Jewish  members  of  parliament,  Eduard  Lasker, 
Ludwig  Bamberger,  Isaac  Wolf  son  and  Heinrich 
Bernhard  Oppenheim,  the  Jews  as  a  race  were 


42  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

not  of  sufficient  importance  to  him  to  move  him  to 
abandon  his  political  plans  for  their  sake.  But 
probably  the  real  cause  for  the  change  of  Bis- 
marck's attitude  toward  the  Jews  was  the  advent 
of  Adolf  Stoecker  (1835-1909)  as  court-chaplain 
in  1878.  Stoecker,  a  social  and  professional 
climber,  and  talented  both  as  an  orator  and  an 
organizer,  appreciated  the  possibilities  of  the 
Antisemitic  campaign  for  the  strengthening  of 
his  own  position.  The  agitation  carried  on  by 
the  Catholics  was,  by  this  time,  dying  out,  its  ob- 
ject having  been  fully  attained.  Official  and  civil 
Germany  was  now  ready  to  turn  its  attention 
from  the  politically  strong  Catholic  minority  to 
the  politically  weakest  and  numerically  smallest 
portion  of  the  population — the  Jews.  The  ultra- 
montanes  could  now  well  afford  to  withdraw  from 
the  arena  and  leave  the  conduct  of  the  war 
against  the  Jews  in  stronger  and  more  capable 
hands.  Instead  of  being  confined  to  the  Catholic 
leaders,  Jew-baiting  now  became  the  concern  of 
Protestant  theologians  close  to  the  government. 
The  latter  realized  that  against  the  steady  ad- 
vance of  liberalism  with  its  persistent  demands 
for  greater  constitutional  freedom  it  could  find 
encouragement  and  help  only  among  the  conserva- 
tives and  reactionaries  who  were  not  necessarily 
limited  to  the  Catholic  party.  The  Jews  being 
among  the  liberals,  they  could  not  escape  coming 
under  the  odium  of  the  government  reactionaries. 
Yet  liberalism  was  not  to  be  disposed  of  in  such 
summary  fashion,  and  socialism  had  driven  its 
roots  too  deeply  into  the  heart  of  the  people  to 
be  eradicated  by  a  mere  change  of  policy  on  the 
part  of  the  monarch  and  the  Chancellor.  To  de- 
prive the  socialistic  snake  of  its  deadly  fangs,  to 
remove  the  kernel  while  retaining  the  husk,  was 
therefore  deemed  the  wisest  course.  Stoecker's 


NORTHERN,    CENTRAL    AND    WESTERN    EUROPE         43 

plan  was  to  make  of  Socialism  a  Christian  theo- 
logical issue,  to  find  for  it  the  authority  and  ap- 
proval of  the  New  Testament,  at  the  same  time 
disarming  it  by  discrediting  its  most  radical 
phases  on  the  strength  of  the  same  religious  au- 
thority. This  would  at  once  serve  a  double  pur- 
pose: it  would  throw  a  sop  to  the  discontented 
classes  by  retaining  the  name  and  the  shadow  of 
an  emasculated  Socialism,  and  would  also  dis- 
credit the  Jews  who,  as  the  historic  "enemies  of 
Christ,"  would  find  themselves  barred  from  iden- 
tifying themselves  with  a  Socialism  based  upon 
the  teachings  of  Christ.  The  originality  of  this 
plan  belonged  to  a  Protestant  pastor  by  the  name 
of  Todt  who  was  first  to  found  a  "Christian  So- 
cialist" society.  It  was  Stoecker,  however,  who 
gave  the  plan  its  widest  possible  scope  of  activ- 
ity, made  Todt's  society  into  a  "Christian  Social- 
ist Party,"  and  by  dint  of  his  great  influence  suc- 
ceeded in  making  the  new  socialism  a  tremendous 
power  for  evil.  Ostensibly  aimed  against  radi- 
calism and  as  a  safety  valve  for  the  pent-up  dis- 
satisfaction of  the  masses,  it  was  in  reality  a 
movement  against  the  Jews.  Ere x  long  German 
Jewry  was  to  feel  the  full  bitterness  of  the  cup  of 
sorrow  thus  brewed  and  prepared  at  the  hands  of 
the  crafty  Stoecker  who,  for  political  reasons,  let 
us  hope,  rather  than  for  any  other  ulterior  con- 
siderations on  the  part  of  the  "Iron  Chancellor," 
obtained  the  entire  approval  and  co-operation  of 
Bismarck. 

Germany  was  now  sorely  in  need  of  another 
Ephraim  Lessing  to  write  a  new  "Nathan  the 
Wise"  to  place  the  Jew  in  a  favorable  light  be- 
fore the  people.  The  extent  of  the  anti-Jewish 
reaction  following  in  the  wake  of  the  "Christian 
Socialist"  agitation  may  be  judged  by  the  very 
large  number  of  cultured  persons,  men  eminent 


44  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

in  the  professions,  authors  and  publicists,  scien- 
tists and  educators,  who  enlisted  in  the  new 
party  and  made  its  anti-Jewish  objects  their  own. 
Largely  dependent  upon  the  government  which, 
in  Germany,  is  in  control  of  all  public  educational 
institutions  and  exercises  a  strict  surveillance  over 
the  press  and  all  literary  output,  these  intellectu- 
als scented  the  real  attitude  of  their  masters,  and 
were  not  slow  in  aligning  themselves  with  the 
forces  with  which  their  interests  were  most  close- 
ly allied.  At  their  head  stood  the  professor  of 
history  at  the  University  of  Berlin,  Heinrich  von 
Treitschke  (1834-1896)  who  shortly  after  the 
formation  of  the  new  party,  in  1879,  came  out  in 
the  "Preussische  Jahrbuecher"  with  a  vehement 
article  under  the  heading:  "A  Word  About  Our 
Judaism."  Germany,  he  laments,  is  being  over- 
run with  Polish  Jewish  peddlers  whose  children 
and  children's  children  will  some  day  be  in  con- 
trol of  the  exchanges  and  the  newspapers  of  the 
country.  England  and  France  may  well  be  puz- 
zled over  the  prevailing  Antisemitism  of  the  Ger- 
mans. They  have  not  the  same  problem  as  the 
Germans,  since  their  Jews  are  of  Spanish  origin 
who  can  look  back  to  a  proud  past,  and  who  make 
comparatively  good  and  loyal  citizens.  Not  so  the 
Jews  of  Germany  who,  having  come  mostly  from 
Russian  Poland,  do  not  feel  like  the  Germans,  and 
are  in  many  ways  a  misfortune  to  the  land.  The 
effect  of  this  onslaught  from  the  pen  of  a  learned 
and  prominent  educator  was  immediately  felt  all 
through  Germany.  In  vain  did  leading  Jews  like 
Dr.  M.  Joel  of  Breslau  endeavor  to  stem  the  ris- 
ing tide  of  ill-will  by  denying  all  of  the  unfounded 
allegations,  or  by  explaining  the  historic  reasons 
for  the  existence  of  whatever  bad  traits  there  did 
obtain  among  the  Jews.  In  vain  did  Ludwig  Phil- 
ippson  in  his  weekly  "Allgemeine  Zeitung  des  Ju- 


NORTHERN,    CENTRAL    AND    WESTERN    EUROPE         45 

denthums,"    and    Moritz    Lazarus    in    a    special 
dissertation,   protest   that  the  Jews   of   Germany 
formed  an  integral  part  of  the  nation  since  "na- 
tionalism was  but  a  community  of  spirit  deter- 
mined by  a  common  nation-consciousness  and  a 
common    language."      In    vain   did    some    of    the 
noblest  of  Christians,  like  Theodor  Mommsen,  the 
famous  historian,   and  Paulus   Cassel,  the  noted 
scholar  and   preacher,   himself   a   converted  Jew, 
take  up  the  cudgels  in  behalf  of  the  Jews;  in  vain 
did  even  the  Crown  Prince  take  a  hand  in  the 
melee  as  a  champion  of  Israel  by  branding  Anti- 
semitism  as  "the  shame  of  the  Century,"  and  de- 
claring that  because  of  it  he,  as  a  German,  felt 
ashamed  of  his  country  when  abroad.     The  poi- 
sonous   agitation     continued     its     deadly     work. 
Henceforth  Jewish  candidates  for  office  were  cer- 
tain to  suffer  defeat  at  the  polls,   while  Jewish 
men  and  women  were  not  secure  against  personal 
assault  on  the  streets  or  in  public  places.     In  the 
Reichstag    von    Puttkamer,    Minister    of    Public 
Worship,  spoke  of  the  need  of  safeguarding  the 
Protestant    Christian    character    of    the    public 
schools,  while  the  more  liberal  members  insisted 
that  the  government  should  step  in  to  check  the 
growth  of  Antisemitism  which  was   sapping  the 
strength  of  the  country,  and  Professor  Virchow 
plainly  accused  the  government  as  the  real  insti- 
gator of  the  movement,  which  it  was  subsidizing 
for  its  own  ends. 

Antisemitism  now  became  the  leading  issue  of 
the  day  in  Germany  before  which  all  other  mat- 
ters paled  into  insignificance.  On  the  27th  of 
May,  1880,  the  Protestant  clergy  of  Berlin 
launched  a  vicious  attack  against  the  Jews  whom 
they  stigmatized  as  the  inexorable  enemies  of  the 
Church  and  of  the  whole  of  Christendom  which 
they  are  seeking  to  subvert  through  money  and, 


46  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

their  influence  over  the  press.  Jews  could  not  now 
be  appointed  as  teachers  in  high  schools.  A  com- 
mercial boycott  of  Jewish  shops  was  started  by 
women  in  numerous  communities,  students  of  the 
high  schools  and  universities  were  enlisted  in  the 
work,  while  throughout  the  land  a  petition  was 
circulated  for  the  disfranchisement  of  the  Jews. 
On  all  sides  threats  were  heard  of  bloody  riots 
against  the  alleged  common  enemy,  some  of  which 
actually  occurred  on  July  17  and  18,  1881,  in  Neu- 
stettin,  followed  by  like  scenes  in  other  towns — a 
sad  prelude  to  the  terrible  pogroms  that  occurred 
shortly  thereafter  in  many  places  in  Russia  which 
thus  followed  to  its  logical  conclusion  the  exam- 
ple of  her  more  cultured  Western  neighbor.  Con- 
tinuing their  agitation,  in  which  even  some  of  the 
foremost  leaders  among  the  clergy  did  not  hesi- 
tate to  demand  the  blood  of  the  Jews/ the  organ- 
ized Antisemites  sought  to  undermine  the  civic 
standing  of  the  Jews  by  refusing  to  take  oath 
before  Jewish  judges,  Pastor  Hapke,  of  Berlin, 
himself  in  1883  setting  the  example  for  such  re- 
sistance. A  clamor  was  made  for  the  prohibition 
of  Jewish  immigration  from  Russia  which  had 
the  effect  of  making  the- treatment  by  the  author- 
ities of  the  hapless  immigrants,  on  their  way  to 
America  through  Germany,  more  severe  and  well- 
nigh  intolerable.  Russian-Polish  Jews  in  the  em- 
ploy of  Jewish  congregations,  such  as  teachers, 
cantors,  etc.,  were  subject  to  summary  expulsion, 
while  by  the  law  adopted  in  May,  1885,  all  for- 
eign Russian-Poles,  by  which  term  was  under- 
stood Polish  Jews,  were  to  be  expelled  from  the 
eastern  provinces  of  the  empire.  The  lengths  to 
which  governmental  encouragement  of  Antisemit- 
ism  went  may  be  gleaned  from  the  action  of  Bis- 
marck in  1884  in  refusing  to  present  before  the 
Reichstag  the  resolutions  of  sympathy  adopted  in 


NORTHERN,    CENTRAL    AND    WESTERN    EUROPE          47 

the  American  Congress  on  the  death  of  the  re- 
nowned German-Jewish  parliamentarian,  Eduard 
Lasker,  which  occurred  while  he  was  on  a  visit  to 
New  York.  It  was  the  unmistakable  wish  of  the 
government  that  the  Jew  should  be  discredited  by 
means  fair  or  foul,  though  Bismarck  would  now 
and  then  adopt  half-hearted  measures  to  check 
the  spread  of  the  anti-Jewish  propaganda.  When 
on  June  15,  1888,  William  II  became  Emperor, 
professional  Antisemites  believed  that  the  time 
was  near  for  the  realization  of  all  of  their  plans 
of  revenge  against  the  hated  Jewish  race.  In 
large  measure  their  hopes  were  not  without  jus- 
tification. 

In  her  barbarous  attitude  toward  the  Jews, 
Germany  was  fast  heading  toward  medievalism. 
All  that  was  lacking  to  make  her  truly  mediaeval 
was  a  ritual-blood  accusation — that  ever-ready 
bogey  of  fanatical  Christendom,  with  which  to 
accomplish  the  certain  discomfiture  of  the  Jews. 
If  this  be  one  of  the  criteria  by  which  a  land's 
state  of  culture  may  be  judged  then  did  Germany, 
in  the  last  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century,  the 
land  of  a  much  vaunted  civilization,  sink  to  a  piti- 
fully low  moral  level.  For  the  ritual-accusation, 
too,  was  not  slow  in  coming.  In  the  little  Prus- 
sian town  of  Xanten,  on  the  29th  of  June,  1891, 
there  was  discovered  in  a  barn  the  dead  body  of 
a  five-year-old  boy,  John  Hegemann,  apparently 
murdered.  No  clue  to  the  murder  could  be  found, 
and  as  Antisemitic  feeling  ran  high  in  the  com- 
munity, the  rumor  that  Jews  were  the  child's 
murderers  for  ritualistic  purposes  found  credence 
and  soon  assumed  tangible  shape  in  the  arrest  of 
a  Jewish  butcher  and  former  Shohet,  Adolf  Bus- 
chorf,  with  his  family.  Released  for  lack  of  evi- 
dence, Buschoff  was  rearrested  after  Stoecker  had 
attacked  the  Jews  in  the  Reichstag.  The  trial 


48  HISTORY    OF    THE   JEWS 

which  lasted  for  eleven  days  (1892)  only  demon- 
strated the  complete  absurdity  of  the  charge,  the 
government  prosecutor  himself  asking  for  the  ac- 
quittal of  the  accused.  But  Buschoff  and  many 
other  Jews  had  to  leave  the  village  for  fear  of 
mob  vengeance.  Unsuccessful  as  this  attack  on 
the  integrity  of  the  Jewish  religion  proved,  it  only 
made  the  Antisemites  more  determined  to  harass 
the  Jews  in  all  possible  ways.  A  new  constella- 
tion on  the  Antisemitic  firmament,  the  bitterest 
and  most  dangerous  of  his  clan,  now  appears  in 
Germany  in  the  person  of  Hermann  Ahlwardt,  at 
one  time  a  teacher  and  later  a  principal  of  a  Ber- 
lin public  school.  Shiftless  and  unscrupulous,  an 
embezzler  of  public  funds  and  a  victim  of  money- 
lenders from  whom  he  was  rescued  by  the  gener- 
osity of  Jewish  friends,  Ahlwardt  did  not  scruple 
to  turn  against  the  race  of  his  benefactors  when 
his  interests  so  demanded.  His  debut  as  an  Anti- 
semite  Ahlwardt  made  in  1890  with  his  inflam- 
matory brochure:  "The  Desperate  Struggle  of 
the  Aryan  People  Against  the  Jews,"  which  was 
followed  in  1891  by  "The  Oath  of  a  Jew"  and  in 
1892  by  "Jewish  Tactics."  The  most  sensational 
of  his  attacks,  however,  was  contained  in  his 
pamphlet  "Judenflinten"  (Jewstones),  published  in 
1892,  in  which  he  defamed  the  great  German- 
Jewish  firm  of  Ludwig  Loewe  and  Company  as 
being  agents  of  the  French  government  against 
the  fatherland,  accusing  it  of  having  furnished 
defective  guns  and  supplies  to  the  German  army. 
This  scandalous  falsehood  was  rapidly  circulated 
throughout  the  land  and  became  the  subject  of 
debate  in  the  Reichstag  where  the  head  of  the 
Loewe  firm  was  a  member.  Ahlwardt  was  tried 
for  libel  and  sentenced  to  five  months'  imprison- 
ment. His  object,  however,  was  attained.  He 
now  became  the  idol  of  a  large  section  of  the 


NORTHERN,    CENTRAL    AND    WESTERN    EUROPE         49 

German  people,  and  on  December  5  of  that  year 
was  elected  to  the  Reichstag,  being  returned  to  it 
in  the  general  elections  of  the  following  year. 
.Confidence  in  his  ability  to  make  trouble  for  the 
Jews  grew  with  the  increase  of  his  popularity, 
and  Ahlwardt  decided  to  cast  his  net  across  the 
ocean  and  to  start  an  Antisemitic  propaganda,  in 
true  German  fashion,  in  the  United  States  (1896). 
Here,  however,  he  met  with  unqualified  defeat. 
In  New  York,  where  he  delivered  lectures  in 
Cooper  Union  and  other  halls  under  the  protec- 
tion of  Jewish  police  officers — an  ingenious  hoax 
perpetrated  on  him  by  Theodore  Roosevelt,  who 
was  then  Police  Commissioner  of  the  city,  he  was 
received  with  indifference  and  disdain  even  on  the 
part  of  the  German-American  element.  He  re- 
turned to  Germany  after  a  year's  sojourn  in 
America,  some  years  later  dying  a  poor,  broken 
and  discredited  man. 

The  extent  to  which  German  Antisemitism  was 
not  merely  tolerated  but  even  encouraged  by  the 
authorities  is  illustrated  in  the  latitude  allowed 
another  notorious  Jew-baiter,  Count  Pueckler,  who 
for  a  number  of  years  was  permitted  to  harangue 
Berlin  mobs  against  the  Jews.  He  even  loudly 
called  for  violence  and  murder  without  meeting 
with  any  serious  interference  from  the  police.  It 
was  subsequently  established  that  Pueckler  was  a 
mentally  deranged  creature,  making  necessary  his 
confinement  in  a  mad-house.  Yet  this  insane 
Count  was  only  one  of  a  large  host  of  an  Anti- 
semitic brood  called  into  life  by  the  Stoecker- 
Treitschke-Ahlwardt  clan,  which  for  many  years 
basked  in  the  favor  of  a  reactionary  government 
to  the  undoing  of  the  civil  and  political  standing 
of  German  Jewry.  The  avowed  desire  of  the 
German  government  to  check  the  spread  of  the 
movement  at  best  resulted  in  only  half-way  meas- 


5O  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

ures.  In  practical  life  Antisemitism  held  sway, 
penetrating  all  classes,  trades  and  professions  and 
reacting  upon  the  economic  condition  of  the  Jews 
to  a  frightful  degree.  Ostracized  both  for  their 
religion  and  their  race,  and  finding  themselves 
barred  against  promotion  in  the  army,  the  univer- 
sities or  in  the  civil  government,  it  need  not  be 
wondered  at  that  many  of  them  could  not  resist 
the  temptation  of  escaping  the  stigma  and  mis- 
fortune of  their  birth  by  embracing  Christianity. 
While  defections  from  Judaism  have  always  taken 
place  in  Germany,  it  was  in  the  last  two  decades 
of  the  nineteenth  century  that  they  assume  alarm- 
ing proportions.  Dr.  Arthur  Ruppin*  estimates 
the  number  of  such  conversions  in  the  city  of 
Berlin  as  at  least  200  persons  annually  for  the 
years  1899-1903,  or  one  convert  to  every  600  Jews. 
Intermarriage,  too,  has  served  to  undermine  the 
foundations  of  the  race  which,  as  was  clearly 
demonstrated  by  so  eminent  an  authority  as  Dr. 
Felix  A.  Theilhaber  in  his  book  on  "The  Disap- 
pearance of  the  German  Jews"  ("Der  Untergang 
der  deutschen  Juden")  is  steadily  on  the  decline 
and  facing  certain  and  inevitable  dissolution. 

But  probably  the  most  deplorable  result  of  Ger- 
man Antisemitism  consisted  in  the  impetus  it  lent 
to  the  anti-Jewish  sentiment  in  neighboring  lands 
and  the  unfortunate  reaction  there  upon  the  social 
and  economic  condition  of  the  Jews.  Having  in- 
vaded Germany  by  way  of  Austria  where  the  cler- 
icals had  never  slackened  their  incendiary  propa- 
ganda, the  anti-Jewish  agitation  soon  made  its 
way  back  tow*ard  the  land  of  its  origin,  finding  an 
especially  fertile  field  for  its  operations  in  Hun- 
gary. Its  progress  and  spread  has  since  the  early 
seventies  kept  pace  in  Austria-Hungary  with  that 


In  "The  Jews  of  To-Day,"  London,  1913,    p.  189. 


NORTHERN,    CENTRAL    AND    WESTERN    EUROPE          51 

of  the  movement  in  Germany,  only  sometimes  as- 
suming coarser  and  more  repulsive  aspects — if 
this  be  at  all  possible  in  a  movement  itself  so 
coarse  and  repulsive  from  every  view-point.  De- 
spite the  bitter  enmity  felt  against  Germany  after 
the  defeat  of  1866,  Austro-Hungarians  were  not 
averse  to  learning  from  the  Germans  and  adopt- 
ing their  ideas  and  methods  at  least  in  the  matter 
of  Jew-baiting.  The  constitution  of  1867  estab- 
lished the  principle  of  religious  liberty  and  politi- 
cal equality  for  all  races  of  the  empire.  The 
Antisemites  therefore  gave  themselves  to  the  task 
of  robbing  the  Jews  of  their  rights  through  indi- 
rect discriminatory  legislation.  Thus  they  suc- 
ceeded in  having  a  law  passed  in  the  Reichsrath 
in  1883  whereby  a  public  school  principal  had  to 
belong  to  the  religion  professed  by  the  majority 
of  the  pupils  of  his  school,  Jews  forming  a  minor- 
ity, especially  in  the  country  districts,  being  there- 
fore barred  from  such  appointments.  The  re- 
strictions imposed  on  peddling  and  the  clothing 
trades  were  also  directed  in  the  main  against  the 
Jews.  The  most  formidable  Antisemite  in  Aus- 
tria at  this  time  was  revealed  in  the  person  of 
Georg  von  Schoenerer,  a  member  of  the  Reichs- 
rath, who  organized  an  Antisemitic  movement 
among  the  university  students,  incited  the  masses 
to  violence,  and  sought  to  bring  about  legislative 
measures  against  the  admission  of  immigrant  Jews 
from  Russia  (1882).  Antisemitism  now  became 
a  spade  to  dig  with  for  those  ambitious  for  po- 
litical preferment  and  in  the  elections  both  of 
1884  and  1891  many  candidates  were  elected  to  the 
Reichsrath  upon  their  anti-Jewish  platform.  The 
blood  of  the  Jews  was  clamored  for  in  parlia- 
mentary debate,  their  very  status  as  human  be- 
ings was  called  into  question,  and  the  notorious 
Luec^r  succeeded  in  becoming  the  head  of  the 


52  HISTORY    OF   THE   JEWS 

clerical  party  on  the  strength  of  his  Antisemitism 
—in  1897  becoming  with  the  help  of  the  reaction- 
aries,  though  against  the  wishes  of  the  govern- 
ment, the  burgomaster  of  the  city  of  Vienna. 

Following  the  example  of  their  German  masters, 
the  Austrian  Antisemites  succeeded  in  inciting  the 
populace  to  violence,  riots  against  the  Jews  taking 
place  in  Prague  in  1897,  and  in  Nachod  and  Holle- 
schau  in  1899.  The  spectre  of  a  ritual-murder 
charge  was  also  to  be  conjured  now  in  order  that 
the  picture  of  horrors  might  be  complete  in  all  its 
details.  It  made  its  appearance  in  the  small  Bo- 
hemian town  of  Polna.  A  nineteen-year-old  seams- 
tress Agnes  Hruza,  from  a  near-by  village,  was 
found  murdered  on  the  first  of  April,  1899,  in  the 
neighboring  forest,  and  among  those  against  whom 
the  suspicion  of  the  authorities  was  directed  was  a 
young  Jewr  by  the  name  of  Leopold  Hilsner.  The 
evidence  against  Hilsner  was  by  no  means  such  as 
to  justify  his  conviction,  and,  under  ordinary  cir- 
cumstances his  acquittal  wrould  assuredly  have  fol- 
lowed. The  bugbear  of  a  ritual  murder,  however, 
strengthened  the  case  against  him,  the  attorneys 
for  both  the  state  and  the  Hruza  family  invoking 
this  century-old  falsehood  to  bolster  up  an  other- 
wise lame  charge.  Hilsner  was  condemned  to  die. 
An  appeal  made  to  a  higher  court  resulted  in  a 
new  trial  when  the  prisoner  was  intimidated  into 
confessing  his  guilt  and  implicating  two  other  Jews 
in  the  crime.  The  latter  readily  furnished  alibis, 
and  Hilsner  himself  recanted.  Shortly  thereafter, 
however,  another  body  of  an  apparently  murdered 
woman  was  discovered  in  the  same  forest,  sup- 
posedly that  of  a  servant  girl,  Maria  Klima,  who 
had  been  missing  for  several  months.  Hilsner  was 
now  charged  with  this  additional  crime  and  at  the 
trial  which  took  place  in  October  and  November, 
1900,  despite  conflicting  and  uncorroborated  testi- 


NORTHERN,    CENTRAL    AND    WESTERN    EUROPE         53 

mony,  was  again  sentenced  to  death.  The  outcry 
against  the  prisoner  and  all  the  Jews  in  the  Anti- 
semitic  press  and  by  members  of  the  Reichsrath 
doubtless  had  its  effect  upon  the  jury.  The  em- 
peror commuted  the  sentence  to  life  imprisonment, 
and  Hilsner  is  to  this  day  languishing  in  prison,  a 
victim  not  of  mistaken  judicial  zeal,  but  of  the  hor- 
rible figment,  the  result  of  deep-seated  Christian 
hate,  that  the  Jew  is  practicing  cannibalism  in  con- 
nection with  his  religious  rites.* 

Even  more  revolting  was  the  Antisemitic  agita- 
tion carried  on  for  many  years  in  Hungary,  result- 
ing in  the  movement  set  on  foot  in  1882  by  mem- 
bers of  the  House  of  Deputies  to  deprive  the  Jews 
of  their  constitutional  rights,  and  culminating  in 
the  ritual-murder  charge  at  Tisza-Eslar  (1882) 
which  led  to  bloody  riots  in  a  number  of  places, 
among  them  the  large  Jewish  centers  of  Presburg 
and  Budapest.  Of  all  the  blood-accusations  made 
against  the  Jews  in  all  ages,  barring  perhaps  the 
Beilis  affair  in  Kiev,  Russia,  in  1913,  that  of  Tisza- 
Eslar  stands  out  as  the  most  pronounced  example 
of  the  extremes  to  which  blind  and  fanatical  anti- 
Jewishness  will  lead.  The  disappearance  in  that 
place  of  a  peasant  girl,  Esther  Solymosi,  shortly 
before  the  Jewish  Passover,  immediately  gave  rise 
to  the  rumor  that  she  had  fallen  a  victim  to  the  re- 
ligious zeal  of  the  Jews.  Without  even  a  semblance 
of  plausibility,  the  authorities  seized  upon  the  base- 
less rumor  to  concoct  a  ritual-murder  charge 
against  the  entire  Tisza-Eslar  community.  For 
this  diabolical  purpose  the  two  children  of  Joseph 
Scharf,  the  sexton  of  the  synagogue — Samuel,  five 
years  old,  and  Moriz,  fourteen  years  old — were  in- 
veigled into  testifying  against  their  parents  and 
other  members  of  the  congregation,  their  testimony 
having  been  elicited  both  by  bribes  and  threats  and, 
as  in  the  case  of  the  older  boy,  by  physical  violence. 

*  Since    the    above    was    written   Hilsner    has   at    last    been    freed 
(April,   1918),   after  a   confinement  of  nineteen  years. 


54  HISTORY   OF   THE   JEWS 

Thus,  upon  the  mere  word  of  irresponsible  chil- 
dren, were  many  representative  Jews  jailed  and  tor- 
tured, and  the  entire  machinery  of  the  Hungarian 
judicial  system  was  thrown  into  the  scale  to  fasten 
upon  the  whole  of  Hungarian  Jewry  an  unspeak- 
able crime.  For  more  than  a  year  and  a  half  all 
Hungary  was  convulsed  with  the  passion  of  re- 
venge against  the  Jews,  diligently  and  persistently 
stimulated  by  the  Antisemites  in  pulpit  and  press. 
Louis  Kossuth,  from  his  exile  in  Italy,  pleaded  in 
vain  with  his  countrymen  against  the  shameful 
procedure,  the  words  of  the  great  patriot  bearing 
but  little  weight  with  a  nation  gone  mad  on  the 
Jewish  question.  Not  even  the  Medievalism  thus 
let  loose  could,  however,  stem  the  tide  of  justice  in 
the  end.  The  grounds  of  accusation  were  too 
flimsy  for  even  a  prejudiced  court  and  jury,  and 
the  hapless  Tisza-Eslar  Jews  were  finally  acquitted 
and  released,  broken  in  health  and  in  spirit. 

The  importance  of  the  Tisza-Eslar  affair  lies  in 
the  revelation  it  must  have  brought  to  thinking 
Jews  everywhere  that  nothing  was  impossible,  even 
in  so-called  enlightened  Western  Europe  where 
Jews  were  concerned,  that  civilization,  Kultitr  and 
glib  professions  of  humanity  were  one  thing,  and 
blind,  deep-seated  hatred  for  the  Jew  quite  a  dif- 
ferent thing.  It  was  scarcely  more  than  the  life- 
time of  a  generation  since  the  great  struggle  for 
human  freedom  of  1848,  and  less  than  two  decades 
since  the  legal  emancipation  of  the  Jews  in  Austria- 
Hungary  and  Germany.  Yet  the  hands  on  the  dial 
of  Time  were  already  moving  backward,  and  the 
constitutional  guarantees  of  the  Jews  could  not 
save  them  in  days  of  popular  wrath  ingeniously 
stirred  up  by  shrewd,  scheming  and  self-seeking 
propagandists.  Germany  having  opened  up  the 
Pandora  box  of  Jew-hatred,  the  evils  arising  from 
it  were  now  spreading  in  all  directions  and  bid  fair 


NORTHERN,    CENTRAL    AND    WESTERN    EUROPE          55 

to  engulf  nearly  all  of  the  European  Continent. 
The  Xanten  blood  accusation  already  mentioned 
was  only  a  belated  echo  of  the  affair  at  Tisza-Eslar. 
Nor  was  this  the  end  of  it.  For  as  late  as  March  in 
1900  Germany  was  to  witness  a  new  ritual-murder 
trial,  this  time  in  the  town  of  Konitz,  West  Prus- 
sia. In  substance  this  case  resembled  the  others: 
the  discovery  of  a  dead  body  showing  murder,  a 
trumped-up  ritual-murder  charge  against  Jews, 
Antisemitic  agitation,  wilful  suppression  of  facts 
and  perversion  of  justice,  harassing  and  persecu- 
tion of  Jews  on  the  part  of  infuriated  mobs,  with 
here  and  there  rioting,  pillage  and  the  murder  of 
Jews  on  the  least  provocation.  As  regards  Ger- 
many, however,  the  world  in  the  closing  years  of 
the  century  had  become  convinced  that  true  enlight- 
enment, toleration  and  justice  to  the  Jew  were 
words  foreign  to  German  vocabulary.  The  bitter- 
est disappointment  of  the  Jews  came  not  from  Ger- 
many, where  all  hope  of  fair-play  had  been  aban- 
doned, but  from  the  more  liberal  countries  where 
Antisemitism  had  for  many  years  been  kept  strictly 
under  cover,  from  the  great  centre  of  republican 
freedom,  France,  and,  in  only  a  smaller  measure, 
from  democratic  England.  It  was  the  Dreyfus 
affair  in  France  in  1894  which  shook  the  Jewish 
world  from  centre  to  circumference  and  served  as 
nothing  else  could  to  shatter  the  confidence  of  the 
Jews  in  their  future  security  among  the  so-called 
civilized  nations  of  Europe. 

French  Antisemitism  goes  back  to  the  very  time 
of  the  founding  of  the  present  republic.  The  fall 
of  the  empire  meant  the  weakening  of  the  power 
of  the  clericals  and  the  ultimate  waning  of  the  great 
influence  wielded  by  the  Catholic  Church  in  the 
affairs  of  the  nation.  Never  a  friend  of  the  Jews, 
Catholicism  saw  in  the  prominent  part  played  by  a 
number  of  them  in  the  reconstruction  of  the  coun- 


56  HISTORY    OF   THE   JEWS 

try  after  the  Prussian  war  a  special  reason  for  her 
dislike  of  the  race.  Ernest  Renan  had  for  many 
years  been  preaching"  a  theoretical  Antisemitism, 
and  though  he  refrained  from  applying  his  the- 
ories about  the  Jews  to  the  conditions  of  his  own 
time,  his  ideas  must  nevertheless  have  impressed 
countless  minds  as  to  the  undesirability  or  even  the 
menace  of  the  Jewish  race.  In  1875  a  French  Turk 
by  the  name  of  Osman-Bey  published  a  book  en- 
titled "The  Conquest  of  the  World  by  the  Jews" 
in  which  he  sought  to  prove  how  the  Jew  was  seiz- 
ing hold  of  everything  making  for  power,  and  gave 
as  concrete  examples  the  powerful  influence  exer- 
cised by  the  house  of  Rothschild  and  the  Alliance 
Israelite  Universelle,  both  of  them,  as  he  alleged, 
working  for  the  aggrandizement  of  the  Jews  in  all 
lands  by  means  of  their  control  of  the  world's 
finances.  Nevertheless,  it  was  not  until  1881  that 
French  Antisemitism  emerged  from  a  state  of  par- 
lor-philosophy to  ente'r  upon  an  active  propaganda. 
In  that  year  there  was  founded  in  the  city  of  Paris 
a  weekly  newspaper,  "L'Antijuif"  which,  true  to 
its  name,  enlarged  upon  the  libelous  statements  of 
Osman-Bey,  imputed  to  the  Jew  all  of  the  ills  and 
evils  of  society,  and  urged  the  disfranchisement  of 
French  Jewry.  This  agitation  was  taken  up  by 
two  of  the  more  prominent  dailies  of  the  capital, 
the  "Figaro"  and  "Revue  des  deux  Mondes,"  both 
of  them  organs  of  the  Clerical  Party.  The  perse- 
cution of  the  Jesuit  Orders  by  Gambetta  who  suc- 
ceeded in  enacting  legislation  affecting  the  exist- 
ence of  261  monasteries,  served  to  further  embitter 
the  Catholics  against  the  Jews  who  were  credited 
as  being  behind  the  anti-Clerical  movement.  The 
cry  was  raised  that  the  country  was  in  the  grip  of 
free-thinkers,  in  reality  Jews,  and  Gambetta  him- 
self was  denounced  as  a  Je\v.  And  when  in  the 
elections  of  1885  a  great  number  of  Clericals  and 


NORTHERN,    CENTRAL    AND    WESTERN    EUROPE          57 

Monarchists  were  returned  to  the  Chamber  of  Dep- 
uties it  was  a  signal  to  the  reactionary  elements 
that  the  day  was  at  hand  when  they  could  profit- 
ably exploit  the  prevailing  anti-Jewish  feeling.  One 
of  these  reactionaries  was  Edouard  Adolphe  Dru- 
mont,  an  obscure  but  shrewd  journalist,  not  averse 
to  using  vulgar  methods,  who  because  of  his  dis- 
agreement with  the  Jewish  publishers  of  "Liberte," 
the  daily  paper  on  which  he  was  employed,  sought, 
like  Haman  of  old,  to  turn  against  all  of  the  Jews 
the  hatred  he  was  harboring  against  one  of  them. 
Accordingly  he,  in  1886,  published  his  "La  France 
Juive"  (Jewish  France).  The  book  met  with  great 
and  unprecedented  success,  passed  through  more 
than  a  hundred  editions,  and  established  for  all 
times  the  reputation  of  its  author  as  the  cleverest 
and  most  dangerous  of  his  tribe.  French  Anti- 
semitism  now  ceased  being  a  theory  but  became  a 
veritable  power  for  evil  under  the  leadership  of 
Drumont  and  the  lieutenants  who  flocked  to  his 
banner. 

The  hatred  of  everything  German  on  the  part  of 
the  French  as  a  result  of  the  Franco-Prussian  War 
had,  to  be  sure,  much  to  do  with  this  anti-Jewish 
sentiment.  For,  unhappily  for  the  Jews,  many  of 
them  were  of  German  origin,  though  they  had 
lived  in  France  for  generations,  and  they  still  re- 
tained their  German  names,  this  being  especially 
true  of  the  Jews  coming  from  Alsace-Lorraine.  It 
mattered  little  that  such  Jews  were  most  patriotic 
Frenchmen,  that  they  had  sacrificed  everything, 
aye,  had  even  expatriated  themselves  for  the  love 
of  France.  In  the  eyes  of  the  unthinking  masses 
they  were  Germans  and  this — as  the  irony  of  fate 
had  it — at  the  very  time  when  the  Jews  in  Germany 
were  being  denounced  as  aliens  and  enemies  of  the 
fatherland.  Several  political  events  of  great  mo- 
ment served  as  pretexts  for  the  continued  on- 


58  HISTORY    OF   THE   JEWS 

slaughts  on  the  character  and  integrity  of  the  Jews. 
One  of  these  was  the  unsuccessful  attempt  of  Gen- 
eral Boulanger  to  overthrow  the  government,  when 
the  Antisemites  found  it  an  easy  task  to  identity 
some  Jews  with  the  movement.  But  an  event  of  far 
greater  moment  was  the  scandal  connected  with  the 
failure  of  the  Panama  Canal  Company  which,  be- 
cause of  the  connection  of  a  number  of  Jews  with 
the  enterprise — something  inevitable  in  view  of  the 
position  occupied  by  the  Jew  in  the  world  of  high 
finance — gave  the  Jew-baiters  their  long-looked- for 
chance  to  foster  upon  the  Jews  the  responsibility 
for  all  of  France's  misfortunes.  Drumont  estab- 
lished his  daily  "La  Libre  Parole"  (The  Free 
\Yord),  while  the  Marquis  de  Rochefort,  Clovis 
Hugues  and  the  Marquis  de  Mores  gained  an  un- 
savory popularity  through  their  fierce  attack  on  the 
Jewish  race.  The  name  "Jew"  became  a  stigma  of 
reproach  and  in  many  places  Jews  were  not  safe 
against  insult  and  assault.  To  vindicate  their  hon- 
or, a  number  of  Jews  fought  duels  in  one  of  which, 
with  the  Marquis  de  Mores,  the  Jewish  Captain 
Mayer,  a  man  of  thirty-three  years,  lost  his  life. 
So  great  was  the  anti-Jewish  feeling  in  the  army 
that  Jewish  officers  had  to  be  ordered  by  Minister 
of  \Yar  de  Freycinet  not  to  challenge  nor  accept  a 
challenge  to  a  duel  over  race  quarrels. 

At  this  period  of  darkness  in  the  history  of 
French  Jewry  there  came  to  the  fore  as  champions 
of  the  much-maligned  race  two  noble  Christians, 
each  of  them  a  writer  of  greatest  distinction  in  his 
chosen  fields.  The  one  was  Emile  Zola,  France's 
greatest  novelist  in  the  closing  decades  of  the  cen- 
tury, who  defended  the  Jews  in  the  daily  press 
with  all  the  power  of  his  trenchant  pen  and  all  the 
weight  of  his  mighty  influence.  The  other  was  the 
eminent  historian  Anatole  Leroy-Beaulieu  who  in 
^93  published  his  great  defence  of  the  Jews,  "Israel 


NORTHERN,    CENTRAL    AND    WESTERN    EUROPE          59 

Chez  les  Nations"  (Israel  Among  the  Nations). 
Like  a  light-tower  on  a  dark  and  stormy  night,  this 
book  of  the  famous  and  genial  Frenchman  came  as 
a  messenger  of  hope  and  reassurance  that  not  all 
of  France  had  capitulated  to  the  forces  of  preju- 
dice and  unreason,  that  here  and  there  hearts  beat 
true  to  the  humanitarian  ideals  of  the  Republic. 
We  shall  let  Leroy-Beaulieu  speak  for  himself: 

"As  a  Frenchman,  the  author  is  one  of  those  who 
are  convinced  that  France  ought  to  remain  true  to 
her  traditions  of  justice  and  liberty.  .They  are  the 
only  glory  and  the  only  wealth  which  the  fortunes 
of  war  cannot  wrest  from  her.  The  more  severe 
the  trials  that  she  has  undergone,  the  more  menac- 
ing the  dangers  that  await  her,  the  more  essential 
is  it  to  her  honor  that  she  should  remain  herself 
and  not  belie,  in  the  eyes  of  the  nations,  those  great 
ideas  which  she  was  the  first  to  proclaim.  To  ab- 
jure them  would  be  not  only  an  act  of  apostasy,  but 
a  forfeiture  of  her  place  in  history.  A  France  that 
should  stoop,  more  than  a  century  after  1789,  to 
abridge  religious  and  civil  liberty  and  to  establish 
among  her  inhabitants  distinctions  based  upon  name 
or  birth,  would  no  longer  be  the  France  that  the 
world  has  thus  far  known.  .  .  . 

"Antisemitism  is  consistent  with  neither  the  prin- 
ciples nor  the  genius  of  our  nation.  It  came  to  us 
from  the  outside,  from  countries  which  have  neither 
our  spirit  nor  our  traditions.  It  came  to  us  from 
across  the  Rhine,  from  old  Germany,  always  ready 
for  religious  quarrels,  always  imbued  with  the 
spirit  of  caste ;  from  New  Germany,  all  inflated  with 
race  pride  and  scornful  of  whatever  is  not  Teu- 
tonic. .  .  . 

"Let  us  confess  it  once  again:  We  have  pre- 
sumed too  much  on  reason,  and  relied  too  confident- 
ly on  civilization.  This  brilliant  civilization,  which 
inspired  our  idlers  with  such  ludicrous  pride,  is 


60  HISTORY    OF   THE   JEWS 

often  shallow  and  unsound,  even  in  the  most  ad- 
vanced countries  of  the  continent.  In  our  proudest 
capitals,  it  is  barely  thicker  than  a  light  veneer,  un- 
derneath whose  surface,  if  we  scratch  it  ever  so 
little,  we  shall  find  all  the  ignorance  and  savagery 
of  the  ages  that  we  deem  barbarous.  Thus,  in 
Paris,  Vienna,  and  Berlin,  the  close  of  our  century 
suffers  the  disgrace  of  seeing  measures  of  proscrip- 
tion and  confiscation  advocated  by  people  who  are 
really  good-natured  and  ordinarily  harmless." 

With  as  clear  a  vision  as  is  only  possible,  for  one 
not  himself  a  Jew,  to  estimate  the  true  qualities  of 
the  Jewish  race,  the  bad  qualities  and  the  historic 
reasons  for  their  existence,  and  the  good  qualities 
and  their  lasting  benefits  to  the  race  and  the  world 
at  large,  Anatole  Leroy-Beaulieu  gives  the  follow- 
ing memorable  characteristic  of  the  psychology  of 
the  Jew : 

"Never  was  son  better  interpreted  by  his  fathers. 
Both  the  good  and  the  evil  qualities  of  the  modern 
Jews  are  rooted  in  the  bosom  of  the  old  mediaeval 
Jews.  Let  us  cast  a  glance  at  those  far-off  ances- 
tors. The  Jew's  genealogy  is  indeed  easily  traced ; 
he  had  no  need  to  examine  the  archives  of  his 
Ghettoes.  We  know  who  were  his  forefathers; 
with  one  of  them  we  are  but  too  well  acquainted ;  it 
is  the  pawnbroker,  the  money-lender,  the  dealer  in 
second-hand  goods,  the  huckster,  the  old-clothes 
man,  the  usurer,  the  stock-jobber,  always  the  same, 
under  divers  names  and  garbs,  for  fifty  genera- 
tions. Such  is,  for  most  of  them,  the  great  ances- 
tor from  whom  all  modern  Jews,  be  they  beggars 
or  millionaires,  uneducated  or  refined,  have  de- 
scended. We  shall  see  before  long  that  he  is  not  the 
only  one;  but  he  is  the  best  known,  the  principal 
ancestor,  if  you  will.  The  Jew  of  to-day  resembles 
him  strongly,  in  intellect  as  well  as  in  character. 

"From  this  long  line  of  forefathers  engrossed  in 


NORTHERN,    CENTRAL    AND    WESTERN    EUROPE          6l 

barter,  traffic,  calculation  and  figuring,  the  Jew  has 
received  his  mental  precision,  his  cleanness  of 
vision,  his  habit  of  taking  nothing  at  its  full  value. 
The  Jewish  merchant  is  not  easily  taken  in  by 
words  or  good  appearances.  His  eyes  are  used  to 
measuring,  his  hands  to  weighing.  He  distrusts 
and  dislikes  approximations.  Observe  the  money- 
changer as  he  handles  the  gold  pieces.  He  exam- 
ines the  metal  and  the  stamp,  he  listens  to  their 
ring,  verifies  their  weight,  satisfies  himself  that  the 
edges  are  not  worn  or  chipped.  Observe  the  dealer 
in  precious  stones,  who  pursues  a  vocation  likewise 
long  followed  by  the  Jews;  see  how  he  turns  the 
diamonds  and  rubies  over  and  over,  looking  at 
them  from  all  sides,  bringing  them  close  to  his  eyes 
and  then  holding  them  far  off,  letting  both  daylight 
and  lamplight  shine  through  them,  while  he  tries  to 
estimate  their  size,  transparency,  brilliancy,  and 
purity.  In  this  manner  does  the  Jew  handle  things 
and  ideas;  he  appraises  everything  at  its  correct 
worth;  he  is  careful  not  to  be  carried  away.  This 
spirit  of  exactness  is  always  displayed  by  the  Jew, 
in  his  private  as  well  as  in  his  business  life,  in  his 
scientific  work  as  \vell  as  in  his  commercial  under- 
takings. It  is  one  of  the  secrets  of  his  strength. 
Above  all  other  men,  he  likes  and  comprehends 
realities. 

"As  he  has  learned  to  value  things,  so  has  he 
learned  to  understand  men.  He  has  seen  so  many 
of  them,  of  all  ages  and  conditions,  in  the  market- 
place, or  in  the  counting-house  of  his  forefather, 
the  money-changer,  or  gliding  furtively  at  night- 
fall through  the  low  doorway  of  his  grandsire,  the 
pawnbroker.  He  has  known  them  all,  small  and 
great,  rich  and  poor,  the  gambler,  the  ambitious 
man,  the  prodigal,  the  miser,  the  profligate,  the  man 
of  frank  and  open  character ;  he  has  observed  them, 
at  his  ease,  in  their  moments  of  transport,  trouble, 


62  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

anguish,  when  all  disguise  is  thrown  off.  Young 
and  old,  nobleman  and  commoner,  burgher  and 
peasant,  all  came  to  borrow  from  him;  for  cen- 
turies he  was  able  to  gauge  them  at  leisure;  were 
they  not  all  clients  of  Israel?  Indeed,  the  Jew  has 
an  instinctive  knowledge  01  men ;  he  knows  how  to 
take  them  and  how  to  cajoie  them.  From  his  an- 
cestors, the  stock-jobber  ana  the  middleman,  he  has 
inherited  an  insinuating  and  flattering  tongue,  a 
merchant's  cleverness  as  well  as  his  art  of  display- 
ing his  wares  to  advantage  and  of  attracting  cus- 
tomers. In  the  art  of  getting  on  the  Jew  has  no 
equal.  He  knows  that  time  has,  in  reality,  no  fore- 
lock, and  no  one  is  so  nimble  in  the  pursuit  of  for- 
tune or  so  clever  in  holding  fast  to  it.  He  is — need 
we  say — the  keenest  huntsman  in  the  chase  after 
florins  and  ducats.  We,  ourselves,  have  trained 
him  to  this.  He  has  been  reared  to  it  as  an  English 
hound  to  fox-hunting.  There  is  no  need  of  dwell- 
ing longer  on  this  aptitude  peculiar  to  the  race. 
We  are  familiar  with  it,  we  are  even  in  danger  of 
exaggerating  its  importance.  We  are  apt  to  pic- 
ture the  Jew  to  ourselves  most  frequently  under 
this  aspect  of  trader,  of  money-getter,  because  it 
is  this  side  which  he  generally  turns  tow-ard  us. 
But  we  must  be  careful  not  to  imagine  that  the 
Jew  is,  or  ever  has  been,  a  money-maker  and  noth- 
ing more. 

"The  money-changer,  the  broker,  the  second- 
hand dealer,  the  usurer,  are  by  no  means  the  only 
ancestors  of  the  modern  Jew.  He  has  another,  less 
familiar  to  us,  but  to  whom  he  bears  as  great  a 
resemblance.  It  would  be  unjust  to  overlook  this 
ancestor,  for  he  embodies  Israel's  traditions  and 
her  true  spirit,  while  the  other,  the  money-dealer, 
represents  only  the  trades  which  we  ourselves  have 
forced  upon  the  Jew.  This  forefather,  the  oldest 
and  most  beloved  by  Israel,  is  the  rabbi,  the  sage, 


NORTHERN,    CENTRAL    AND    WESTERN    EUROPE         63 

the  Talmudist.  It  is  not  true  that  for  twenty  cen- 
turies Israel's  soul  was  absorbed  in  banking  and 
speculation.  The  traffic  in  gold  was  for  a  long 
time  but  a  means  of  subsistence  for  the  Jews,  the 
only  one  permitted  to  them.  It  was  not  the  pub- 
lican nor  the  financier  whom  the  sons  of  Israel  hon- 
ored and  aspired  to  emulate;  it  was  the  rabbi,  the 
interpreter  of  the  law,  the  scribe,  the  scholar,  the 
Hakham.  Israel  was  a  nation  of  students  before 
she  became  a  nation  of  money-makers.  She  has 
always  remembered  this.  The  Jew  has  had  a  two- 
fold education,  two  entirely  different  teachers 
whose  lessons  he  learned  simultaneously.  While 
in  the  hands  of  the  money-changer  and  the  broker, 
he  was  being  trained  to  precise  calculations,  to  a 
practical  sense,  to  the  knowledge  of  men  and  things, 
under  the  guidance  of' the  rabbi,  the  Hakham,  he 
acquired  the  habit  of  theoretical  speculation,  of  in- 
tellectual study,  of  scientific  abstraction.  These 
two  warring  tendencies  in  human  life  thus  met  and 
became,  as  it  were,  blended  in  Israel.  Of  the  two 
directions  in  which  man's  activity  is  tempted  to 
spend  itself,  the  one  most  prized  by  the  select  of 
Israel,  most  sought  after  by  this  race  apparently 
given  over  to  material  cares,  was  invariably  the 
spiritual  one.  In  the  old  Jewries  the  banker  has 
ever  been  less  esteemed  than  the  scholar,  the 
money-changer  less  than  the  student.  If  such  is 
not  now  the  rule,  it  is  because,  through  our  influ- 
ence, Israel  has  fallen  away  from  her  traditions." 

But  the  most  touching  appeal  of  this  eminent 
Frenchman  is  contained  in  the  final  chapter  of  his 
work  in  which  he  endeavors  to  show  that  both  Ju- 
daism as  a  religion  and  the  Jews  as  a  race  have 
ever  worked  for  the  betterment  and  ennoblement  of 
the  world: 

"How  can  we  forget  that  the  great  doctrine  of 
human  brotherhood  given  to  the  world  by  the  apos- 


64  HISTORY    OF    THE   JEWS 

ties  of  Galilee — the  doctrine  in  which  it  is  so  often 
claimed  to-day  that  all  religion  and  all  morality  are 
summed  up — is  a  Jewish-Christian  doctrine  that 
has  its  roots  in  the  Hebrew  religion?  These  Jews, 
who  are  accused  of  an  incurable  tribal  spirit,  were 
the  first  to  proclaim  that  all  men  are  brothers,  de- 
scendants of  the  same  Adam  and  the  same  Eve. 
'Why/  asks  the  Talmud,  'was  there  but  one  Adam 
in  the  beginning?  In  order  that  all  men  should 
have  the  same  father,  and  that  one  nation  should 
not  be  able  to  say  to  another :  Our  ancestors  were 
richer  and  greater  than  thine.  All  men  are  broth- 
ers, all  nations  are  sisters.'  'In  thee,'  said  the  Lord 
to  Abraham,  'shall  all  families  of  the  earth  be 
blessed.'  And  this  human  brotherhood,  which  the 
sacred  books  placed  in  the  cradle  of  the  race,  the 
seers  of  Judah  have  embodied  in  their  visions  of 
the  future. 

"At  a  time  when  the  mitred  Assyrian  crushed  the 
people  beneath  the  wheels  of  his  chariot  of  war,  the 
captive  Jew  yet  dared  to  proclaim  that  the  day  was 
coming  when  peace  and  harmony  would  reign  for- 
ever among  the  nations.  The  primitive  brother- 
hood was  to  be  re-established  at  the  end  of  time. 
Its  prophetic  emblems  are  well  known;  they  are 
those  of  Eden :  the  leopard  shall  lie  down  with  the 
kid,  and  the  wolf  and  the  lamb  shall  pasture  to- 
gether. Beautiful  symbols  of  a  noble  hope !  What 
do  they  mean,  if  not  that  the  weakness  of.  the  little 
nations  will  be  respected  by  those  that  are  great 
and  strong?  Maimonides,  the  eagle  of  the  Syna- 
gogue, takes  pains  to  tell  us  that  this  will  be  accom- 
plished without  a  miracle.  In  his  eyes,  the  lamb 
and  the  kid  stand  for  Israel,  the  wolf  and  the  pan- 
ther for  the  nations  converted  to  justice  and  peace. 
What  matters  the  interpretation  of  the  rabbis? 
Brotherhood  among  men,  peace  among  nations,  this 
is  an  ideal  in  which  there  is  nothing  exclusive;  and 


NORTHERN,    CENTRAL    AND    WESTERN    EUROPE          65 

if  this  is  cosmopolitanism,  where  is  the  patriot  who 
could  take  offence  at  it?" 

And  these  sublime  words  addressed  to  the  better 
nature  of  his  countrymen,  to  their  sense  of  justice, 
peace  and  loving-kindness,  were  written  on  the  eve 
of  the  notorious  and  epoch-making  Dreyfus  affair. 

This  affair,  which  in  its  day  was  the  most  sensa- 
tional of  all  occurrences,  for  a  number  of  years 
forming  the  chief  topic  of  interest  everywhere, 
causing  the  suicide  of  a  number  of  persons,  the  dis- 
grace of  many  prominent  personages,  and  threaten- 
ing even  the  peace  of  the  world,  was  the  most  strik- 
ing example  of  the  lengths  to  which  Antisernitism 
is  prepared  to  go  in  its  plannings  to  render  the  lot 
of  the  Jew  miserable.  Alfred  Dreyfus  was  in  real- 
ity a  victim  of  the  historic  hatred  of  the  French 
against  the  Germans,  their  constant  fear  of  a  Teu- 
tonic invasion,  and  their  anxiety  to  make  use  of  all 
available  measures  for  the  safeguarding  of  the 
fatherland  against  the  aggression  of  their  long- 
prepared  and  well-organized  military  neighbor 
across  the  Rhine.  The  Antisemites  played  upon 
this  fear  of  a  German  invasion  for  the  undoing  of 
the  Jews.  Dreyfus  the  individual  was  of  little  con- 
cern to  them.  But  Dreyfus  the  Jew  through  whose 
degradation  and  fall  a  staggering  blow  might  be 
dealt  at  the  civic  character  and  patriotic  standing 
of  the  entire  hateful  race — here  the  artillery  cap- 
tain assumed  the  proportions  of  a  valuable  prize. 
The  presence  of  many  Jewish  officers  in  the  army 
had  long  been  a  thorn  in  their  flesh.  The  convic- 
tion and  punishment  of  one  of  them  would  there- 
fore condemn  all  other  Jewish  officers  and  bar  the 
doors  of  the  army  against  further  Jewish  ambition. 
Antisernitism  had  by  this  time  permeated  all 
branches  of  the  army,  and  it  was  quite  within  the 
bounds  of  probability  that  some  mean-spirited  offi- 
cer, himself  guilty  of  the  crime  and  envious  of  the 


66  HISTORY    OF    THE   JEWS 

gifted  and  promising  Jewish  captain,  who  was  en- 
joying wealth  and  a  happily  married  life,  should 
prepare  a  compromising  document  with  the  calcu- 
lation of  bringing  about  Dreyfus's  downfall,  even 
as  under  the  circumstances  it  was  a  most  natural 
thing  that  his  superior  officers  should  readily  seize 
upon  the  charge  as  a  means  of  ridding  themselves 
of  a  hated  Jew-subordinate.  Under  the  circum- 
stances Dreyfus  stood  no  chance  whatever  of  ob- 
taining justice  when  placed  on  trial  for  a  crime  of 
which  he  was  entirely  innocent.  The  crime  itself— 
that  of  having  sold  military  secrets  to  the  German 
military  attache  in  France — was  bad  enough,  but 
when  imputed  to  a  Jew  its  importance  at  once  be- 
came magnified  a  thousandfold.  Dreyfus,  indeed, 
was  convicted  even  before  he  was  tried.  The 
charge  of  treason  based  upon  the  discovery  by  the 
French  Intelligence  Office  of  an  anonymous  letter, 
known  as  the  bordereau,  the  writing  of  which 
slighty  resembled  that  of  Dreyfus,  probably  would 
have  been  dismissed  in  the  case  of  a  non-Jewish 
suspect.  In  the  case  of  Dreyfus  it  was  firmly  per- 
sisted in  despite  the  flimsiness  of  its  grounds; 
even  the  doubtful  circumstances  were  interpreted 
as  strengthening  the  case  of  the  state,  while  the 
least  element  of  truth  pointing  to  the  guilt  of  the 
prisoner  was  stretched  to  the  utmost.  Men  of  sci- 
ence and  professional  standing  prostituted  their 
calling  to  give  unfavorable  testimony  while  the 
prisoner's  fellow-officers  manifested  a  flagrant  lack 
of  esprit-de-corps  in  the  interest  they  took  in  the 
conviction  of  their  comrade.  Under  the  lash  of 
Antisemitic  agitation  all  of  France  became  inflamed 
with  the  passion  to  see  a  Jew  punished  and  degrad- 
ed. The  whole  "affaire"  was  but  a  paraphrased 
version  of  "The  Merchant  of  Venice"  with  the  Jew 
this  time  playing  Antonio  while  a  fiendish  Shylock, 
insisting  upon  his  pound  of  flesh,  was  impersonat- 


ALFRED  DREYFUS 
(b.  1859) 


NORTHERN,  CENTRAL  AND  WESTERN  EUROPE       67 

ed  by  a  hopelessly  bigoted  Antisemitism  adaman- 
tine in  its  purpose,  a  stranger  to  all  considerations 
of  pity  and  mercy,  speaking  a  thousand  tongues 
through  press  and  pulpit,  self-seeking,  venal  and 
brutal. 

Found  guilty,  sentenced  to  life-imprisonment, 
and  suffering  public  humiliation,  Dreyfus  would 
have  taken  his  life  but  for  the  thought  of  his  be- 
loved wife  and  children,  and  the  determination  to 
live  on  in  the  hope  of  one  day  vindicating  his  honor 
and  that  of  his  race.  He  never  ceased  protesting 
his  innocence.  At  the  very  time  of  his  degradation 
on  January  5,  1895,  on  the  Field  of  Mars,  as  the 
sergeant  tore  off  his  shoulder  straps  and  broke  his 
sword,  the  martyr  shouted :  "Soldiers,  they  are  dis- 
honoring an  innocent  man !  Long  live  France,  long 
live  the  army!"  Repeatedly  this  cry  of  anguish 
rang  out  as  the  prisoner  was  led  around  the  square 
only  to  be  met  with  the  shouts  of  "Death  to  the 
traitor !"  "Judas !"  "Dirty  Jew !"  from  the  infuri- 
ated crowd.  Dragged  from  one  prison  to  another, 
roughly  handled  by  the  officials  and  everywhere 
threatened  by  the  populace,  Dreyfus  was  finally 
transferred  to  the  "Devil's  Island,"  one  of  a  group 
known  as  the  "lies  de  Salut"  off  French  Guiana, 
there  to  begin  his  imprisonment  under  most  fright- 
ful conditions.  Still,  despite  the  harsh  treatment, 
the  strictly  enforced  silence  and  solitude,  the  sever- 
ity of  the  climate  and  the  disease-breeding  marshes 
of  the  place,  Dreyfus  managed  to  retain  his  health, 
all  the  time  animated  with  the  thought  that  the  day 
of  his  delivery  and  complete  vindication  would  soon 
arrive.  Nor  was  it  an  empty  hope.  France  soon 
discovered  that  the  case  of  Dreyfus  was  by  no 
means  disposed  of  with  his  conviction  and  punish- 
ment. The  cry  "I  am  innocent!"  rang  with  ever 
greater  volume  through  the  hearts  and  consciences 
of  men  since  that  terrible  day  on  the  Field  of  Mars. 


68  HISTORY    OF    THE   JEWS 

"Truth  sprouteth  from  the  ground,"  and  the  truth 
of  the  innocence  of  the  Jewish  martyr  stalked  like 
a  spectre  through  France,  causing  dismay,  restless- 
ness and  fear  in  the  hearts  of  many  a  high-placed 
official  \vho  had  a  hand  in  the  conviction,  and  not 
stopping  even  at  the  presidency  of  the  republic.  The 
first  impetus  to  the  clearing  up  of  the  matter 
was  given  by  the  German  government  which,  quite 
justly,  resented  the  implication  of  her  embassy  in  a 
case  with  which  she  was  not  concerned.  Whatever 
work  of  espionage  her  agents  in  France  may  have 
been  doing,  she  knew  that  Dreyfus  was  not  one  of 
her  tools.  Accordingly  she  made  repeated  protests 
to  the  French  government  and,  in  the  end,  threat- 
ened to  withdraw  her  ambassador,  Count  Muen- 
ster,  unless  France  would  disavow7  her  belief  that 
the  German  embassy  had  anything  to  do  with  Drey- 
fus. Reserving  their  skepticism  to  themselves, 
President  Casimir-Perier  as  well  as  Hanotaux,  the 
head  of  the  Foreign  Office,  deemed  it  best  to  exon- 
erate that  embassy.  Soon  afterward  Casimir- 
Perier  resigned  as  president,  and  his  action, 
brought  on  doubtless  by  the  ever-growing  compli- 
cations of  the  Dreyfus  case,  added  not  a  little  to 
the  mystery  of  the  affair.  The  turn  of  the  tide  in 
favor  of  the  Jewish  martyr  came  with  the  appoint- 
ment in  1896  of  the  astute  and  honorable  Colonel 
Picquart  as  head  of  the  Intelligence  Office  in  the 
place  of  the  retiring  Colonel  Sandherr.  We  nowr 
for  the  first  time  come  across  the  name  of  the  man 
who,  from  all  appearances,  and  according  to  later 
disclosures,  was  the  real  perpetrator  of  the  crime 
for  which  Dreyfus  was  convicted — Major  Ester- 
hazy.  An  adventurer,  thoroughly  unscrupulous 
and  venal,  a  spendthrift  reduced  to  the  brink  of 
privation  and  poverty,  devoid  of  all  principles  of 
patriotism  and  honor,  this  was  the  man  chosen  by 
the  German  military  attache,  Schwarzkoppen,  to 


NORTHERN,    CENTRAL    AXD    WESTERN    EUROPE         69 

spy  upon  the  French  General  Staff  for  military  se- 
crets, the  price  being  2,000  marks  a  month.  The 
clue  to  Esterhazy,  a  suspiciously  worded  letter,  even 
as  the  famous  bordereau  itself,  was  stealthily  ob- 
tained from  the  German  embassy.  Picquart  set  to 
work  to  unravel  the  mystery,  compared  the  hand- 
writing in  some  letters  Esterhazy  had  written  with 
that  of  the  bordereau,  and  came  to  the  conclusion 
that  all  these  letters  were  written  by  one  and  the 
same  person,  Esterhazy.  He,  however,  met  with 
discouragement  from  his  superior  officers  who  were 
afraid  to  re-open  the  Dreyfus  case.  By  this  time 
they  knew  that  they  had  ruined  the  reputation  and 
broken  the  life  of  a  most  innocent  man.  To  give 
this  man  a  chance  of  regaining  his  liberty  and  his 
honor  would,  however,  have  meant  their  own  un- 
doing. And,  besides,  Dreyfus  was  only  a  Jew, 
after  all.  Colonel  Picquart  now  became  to  them  an 
object  of  dislike  whose  activity  in  the  uncovering 
of  the  real  traitor  they  feared  and  determined  to 
check.  Spies  were  placed  in  his  office  to  watch  and 
harass  him  in  his  work.  Even  persuasive  argu- 
ments to  dampen  his  ardor  for  righting  a  heinous 
wrong  were  not  wanting.  "What  can  it  matter  to 
you  whether  this  Jew  remains  at  Devil's  Island  or 
not?"  was  the  query  put  to  him  by  General  Gonse, 
the  deputy-chief  of  the  General  Staff.  His  dismiss- 
al was  inevitable.  But  Picquart  was  undeterred  in 
his  determination  to  obtain  justice  for  Dreyfus. 
Fortunately  he  was  not  alone  in  France  to  believe 
in  the  undoing  of  wrong  once  it  came  to  light. 

The  family  of  Dreyfus,  his  wife  and  more  espe- 
cially his  brother  Matthew,  had  not  in  the  mean- 
time remained  inactive.  They  were  constantly  on 
the  alert,  looking  for  every  possible  clue  to  the  iden- 
tity of  the  real  culprit.  They  found  greatest  as- 
sistance in  Bernard  Lazare  (1865-1903),  a  highly 
talented  journalist  connected  with  several  leading 


70  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

French  newspapers,  and  author  of  a  number  of 
works,  notably  one  on  the  history  and  the  causes 
of  Antisemitism  ("L'Antisemitisme,  Son  Histoire 
et.Ses  Causes").  Both  as  a  fellow-Jew  and  as  a 
man  of  truth  and  justice,  Lazare,  after  becoming 
convinced  of  the  complete  innocence  of  Dreyfus, 
undertook  his  defense  in  two  books  he  published 
successively  in  1896  and  1897  in  which  he  en- 
deavored to  show,  from  his  knowledge  of  the  facts 
of  the  case,  that  a  grave  judicial  error  had  been 
committed  and  that  an  innocent  man  had 
been  condemned.  Nevertheless,  howsoever  ef- 
fective the  writings  of '  Lazare  may  have 
proven,  they  and  all  other  efforts  in  behalf 
of  Dreyfus  would  have  been  futile  but  for 
the  interest  the  case  had  aroused  in  one  of  France's 
greatest  leaders  of  the  time,  Scheurer-Kestner,  then 
vice-president  of  the  Senate.  This  honorable  and 
justice-loving  Alsatian,  perceiving  the  entire  fiend- 
ishness  of  the  plot,  swore  not  to  rest  until  the  entire 
truth  was  brought  to  light.  But  he  was  beset  on 
all  sides  with  insurmountable  difficulties.  His  in- 
tentions soon  became  known  to  the  members  of  the 
General  Staff,  who  had  every  interest  to  endeavor 
to  thwart  his  efforts.  Again  and  again  he  was, 
through  their  machinations,  put  off  the  track,  while 
Esterhazy  himself  was  in  the  meantime  apprised 
of  his  danger.  There  followed  plots  and  counter- 
plots, with  more  forgeries  and  a  hopeless  maze  of 
contradictory  evidence.  To  check  the  activity  of 
Picquart  he  had  been  ordered  to  resign  his  office 
and  to  enter  the  service  with  the  expeditionary 
army  in  Africa.  At  the  instance  of  Scheurer-Kest- 
ner he  was  now  ordered  to  return  to  testify  at  the 
trial  which  Esterhazy,  with  a  show  of  innocence, 
had  himself  requested  that  he  may  be  cleared  of  the 
charge  of  treason,  Matthew  Dreyfus  having  now 
formally  denounced  him  as  the  real  author  of  the 


BERNARD   LAZARE 
(1865-1903) 


NORTHERN,    CENTRAL    AND    WESTERN    EUROPE         7! 

bordereau.  The  court-martial  took  place  at 
Cherche-Midi  on  January  10  and  u,  1898,  and  was 
farcical  throughout.  The  Dreyfus  family  was  de- 
nied representation,  Esterhazy  was  questioned  in  a 
most  general  way  that  afforded  him  all  possible 
loopholes  for  evading  answers  and  distorting  facts, 
while  Picquart,  who  alone,  unlike  Esterhazy  and 
the  othe"r  witnesses,  was  heard  in  secret,  was  sub- 
jected to  a  severe  cross-examination  and  his  testi- 
mony was  allowed  by  the  judges  to  be  twisted  out 
of  shape.  As  a  result  not  unforeseen  by  those  who 
watched  the  trend  of  things,  Esterhazy  was  acquit- 
ted amidst  the  acclaim  of  the  populace  and  the 
press,  while  Picquart  was  sentenced  to  sixty  days' 
imprisonment  for  communicating  military  docu- 
ments to  his  lawyer,  Leblois,  his  sentence  being  fol- 
lowed later  by  his  dismissal  from  the  army. 

But  the  climax  in  this  comedy  of  judicial  horrors 
was  to  come  scon.  Howsoever  hard  they  tried  to 
prevent  it,  this  affair  was  now  taken  out  of  the 
hands  of-  the  highly  stationed  men  of  the  General 
Staff  and  became  more  than  ever  before  the  con- 
cern of  the  entire  French  nation  which  split  into 
Dreyfusards  and  Anti-Dreyfusards,  with  the  best 
intellectual  forces  of  the  land  among  the  former. 
Upon  the  scene  there  now  appears  Emile  Zola  who 
had  already  evinced  a  great  interest  in  the  affair 
and  was  among  those  who  clamored  for  a  revision 
of  the  case.  Two  days  after  Esterhazy's  acquitta1 
on  January  13,  Zola  published  in  "L'Aurore"  his 
famous  "J' Accuse"  (I  Accuse)  letter  in  which,  in 
his  wonted  impassioned  style,  the  great  novelist  laid 
bare  all  the  deviltry  of  those  who  had  staged  both 
the  Dreyfus  trial  and  the  Esterhazy  court-martial. 
Drawing  up  a  long  list  of  accusations,  he  charged 
that  Dreyfus's  conviction  was  based  upon  a  secret 
document  which  was  not  admitted  in  the  evidence, 
and  that  Esterhazy  was  acquitted  by  the  wilful  or- 


72  HISTORY   OF   THE   JEWS 

der  of  the  court  which  knew  him  to  be  the  guilty 
person.  Zola  was  arrested  on  the  charge  of  libel 
and  his  trial  (February  7-28,  1898)  brought  forth 
much  sensational  evidence,  in  which  more  forged 
documents  played  an  important  part.  Notwith- 
standing all  of  the  proof  in  favor  of  the  defendant, 
skillfully  played  upon  in  their  addresses  to  .the  jury 
by  his  lawyers,  Fernand  Labori  and  Albert  Clemen- 
ceau,  he  was  declared  guilty  and  sentenced  to  one 
year's  imprisonment  and  the  payment  of  a  fine  of 
three  thousand  francs.  The  appeal  which  was  taken 
to  the  Court  of  Cassation  (Supreme  Court)  result- 
ed in  the  setting  aside  of  the  verdict.  The  War 
Office,  however,  decided  on  further  prosecution, 
and  the  second  trial  of  Zola  was  set  for  the  i8th 
of  July.  By  this  time  Zola  was  convinced  that  it 
was  useless  to  look  for  justice  under  a  government 
so  strongly  controlled  by  the  professional  Anti- 
semites,  themselves  the  tools  of  the  clandestine  in- 
fluence of  the  Church  and  the  Monarchists.  Rather 
than  stand  trial  he  fled  to  England.  Though  ab- 
sent, he  was  again  convicted,  the  same  sentence 
was  pronounced  and  further  disgrace  was  meted 
out  to  him  in  the  removal  of  his  name  from  the 
French  Legion  of  Honor. 

But  instead  of  settling  the  matter  and  disposing 
of  the  agitation  for  a  revision  of  the  Dreyfus  case, 
the  martyrdom  of  Zola  was  like  putting  a  match  to 
a  powder  magazine.  Henceforth  France  was  to 
have  no  peace.  Throughout  the  country  passion 
ran  high,  insults  were  heaped  alike  upon  organiza- 
tions and  individuals,  duels  were  fought,  blows 
were  exchanged  in  the  very  Chamber  of  Deputies, 
and  threats  of  anti-Jewish  riots  were  frequently 
heard.  The  Socialists,  headed  by  Jaures,  now  took 
a  hand  in  the  melee,  and  the  government  was  ac- 
cused of  being  at  the  mercy  of  the  militarists.  In 
the  national  election  of  that  year  the  Dreyfus 


NORTHERN,  CENTRAL  AND  WESTERN  EUROPE  73 

scandal,  though  not  openly  referred  to,  played  a 
decisive  part,  and  again  the  Antisemites  had  their 
way.  Picquart  was  again  arrested  and  imprisoned 
while  charges  made  against  Esterhazy,  his  mistress 
and  Du  Paty  du  Clam,  Dreyfus's  chief  accuser, 
were  dismissed  as  groundless.  Shortly  after  this, 
however,  certain  authentic  revelations  came  to 
light,  demonstrating  the  guilt  of  Colonel  Henry,  the 
accomplice  of  Du  Paty  du  Clam  in  the  Dreyfus  con- 
spiracy, as  the  forger  of  documents  bearing  upon 
the  affair  subsequent  to  Dreyfus's  conviction.  The 
day  following  his  arrest  Henry  cut  his  throat  with 
a  razor  left  in  his  cell  for  that  purpose,  doubtless, 
and  the  same  day  Esterhazy  escaped  to  England 
(August  31,  1898).  The  head  of  the  General  Staff, 
General  Boisdeffre,  who  had  been  in  collusion  with 
Henry,  immediately  resigned.  It  now  became  pat- 
ent that  the  conviction  of  Dreyfus  was  the  result 
of  a  grave  judicial  error,  if  not  of  an  intentional 
frame-up.  Men  in  high  official  places  found  them- 
selves forced  to  resign.  The  revision  of  the  case 
now  seemed  assured,  though  many  were  the  diffi- 
culties still  placed  in  its  way.  Almost  a  year  since 
Henry's  suicide  was  allowed  to  pass  before  the  final 
decision  of  a  revision  was  reached  (June  3,  1899) 
during  which  time  occurred  the  sudden  death  of  the 
president  of  the  republic,  Felix  Faure,  and  the 
election  of  Emile  Loubet  as  his  successor.  It  is 
noteworthy  that  in  this  presidential  election  no  one 
was  allowed  as  candidate  who  in  any  way  had  been 
involved  in  the  Dreyfus  affair. 

The  Supreme  Court  now  annulled  the  sentence 
of  1894  and  ordered  a  new  trial  to  take  place  in  the 
city  of  Rennes.  Dreyfus  was  immediately  notified, 
and  his  return  was  ordered.  "My  joy,"  says  the 
Devil's  Island  martyr  in  his  book,  "Five  Years  of 
My  Life,"  "was  boundless,  unutterable.  At  last  I 
was  escaping  from  the  cross  to  which  I  had  been 


74  HISTORY    OF    THE   JEWS 

nailed  for  nearly  five  years,  suffering  as  bitterly  in 
the  martyrdom  of  my  dear  ones  as  in  my  own. 
Happiness  succeeded  the  horror  of  that  inexpres- 
sible anguish.  The  day  of  justice  was  at  last  da-wn- 
ing  for  me.  The  Court's  decision  terminated  every- 
thing, I  thought,  and  I  had  not  the  slightest  idea 
that  there  remained  anything  to  do  but  go  through 
some  necessary  legal  formalities." 

Yet  he  was   fated  to  bitterest  disappointment. 
The  manner  of  his  reception  in  France  was  more 
that  of  an  already  condemned  criminal  than  of  a 
military  officer  whose  conviction  had  been  set  aside 
and  now  was  about  to  be  cleared  of  a  foul  charge 
for  which  he  had  innocently  sufTeredv    France  was 
still  impenitent  and  defiant  toward  the  man  she  had 
wronged  so  grievously.     In  reality — far  from  ex- 
tenuating as  this  circumstance  be — France,  fearing 
for  her  safety,  was  now  afraid  to  reverse  her  form- 
er verdict  and  restore  Dreyfus  to  his  liberty  and 
his  honorable  standing  in  the  army.    The  matter 
had  gone  too  far  and  the  passions  aroused  were 
too  menacing,  to  permit  this  act  of  simple  justice 
in  the  face  of  overwhelming  opposition.     The  re- 
vision of  the  Dreyfus  case,  so  stubbornly  opposed 
by  the  military  and  clerical  reactionaries,  was  an 
involuntary  concession  to  the  just  demands  of  the 
liberal  elements,  and,  indeed,  was  made  imperative 
by  the  new  developments.     But  now  that  Dreyfus 
was  on  trial  again,  his  conviction  a  second  time  be- 
came necessary  in  the  eyes  of  his  judges  as  a  means 
of  saving  the  French  army  from  disgrace  and  the 
republic  itself  from  the  danger  of  civil  war.     It  is 
this  probable  attitude  which  explains  the  marked 
unfairness  that  attended  the  long  trial  at  Rennes, 
the  introduction  and  admission  of  irrelevant  mat- 
ters for  the  sole  purpose  of  thickening  the  mystery 
and  making  the  confusion  worse  confounded.     In 
vain  did  the  two  distinguished  lawyers  for  the  ac- 


NORTHERN.  CENTRAL  AND  WESTERN  ETROPE        75 

cusecl,  Demange  and  Labori,  exert  all  the  ingenuity 
of  their  legal  minds  to  keep  the  trial  to  the  channel 
of  regularity  and  impartiality.  Their  endeavors 
were  of  no  avail  in  the  face  of  the  high-handed  tac- 
tics employed.  If  the  result  of  the  first  Dreyfus 
trial  was  merely  a  grievous  judicial  mistake,  the 
result  of  the  second  trial,  even  as  the  trial  itself, 
was  a  veritable  mockery  of  justice.  Dreyfus  was 
convicted  a  second  time  (September  9,  1899) 
though  at  least  two  of  his  seven  judges  voted  "not 
guilty,"  and  the  verdict  itself  was  qualified  by  the 
words  "extenuating  circumstances,"  a  quite  mean- 
ingless phrase  in  the  case  of  a  crime  like  treason. 
The  sentence  was  ten  years'  imprisonment  and  mil- 
itary degradation.  The  play  to  the  gallery  thus  ac- 
complished, the  other  card  from  up  the  sleeve  was 
now  produced.  Dreyfus  was  offered  a  pardon  on 
condition  that  he  refrain  from  appealing  to  the 
Supreme  Court  for  a  revision  of  his  trial,  as  he 
was  contemplating  doing.  What  he  wanted  was 
justice,  not  clemency,  yet  he  knew  that  the  state  of 
his  health,  now  quite  undermined,  would  not  have 
been  equal  to  the  strain  of  further  incarceration. 
His  heart  also  went  out  to  his  wife  and  children, 
who  would  have  been  the  greatest  sufferers  by  his 
renewed  imprisonment.  Then,  too,  he  felt  that 
with  freedom  once  regained,  there  would  soon  also 
come  the  means  and  opportunities  for  obtaining 
full  justice  and  an  honorable  reinstatement.  Ac- 
cordingly he  accepted  the  pardon  extended  to  him 
by  the  president  of  the  republic,  not,  however, 
without  a  public  statement  of  his  intentions.  On 
the  very  day  of  his  liberation  (September  20)  he 
wrote  to  the  president  the  following:  "The  Gov- 
ernment of  the  Republic  gives  me  back  my  liberty. 
It  is  nothing  to  me  without  honor.  Beginning  with 
to-day,  I  shall  unremittingly  strive  for  the  repara- 
tion of  the  frightful  judicial  error  of  which  I  am 


76  HISTORY   OF   THE   JEWS 

still  the  victim. — I  want  all  France  to  know  by  a 
final  judgment  that  I  am  innocent.  My  heart  will 
never-  be  satisfied  while  there  is  a  single  French- 
man who  imputes  to  me  the  abominable  crime 
which  another  committed." 

It  was  well  that  he  acted  thus.  A  free  though 
as  yet  unacquitted  Dreyfus  meant  an  ever-present 
reminder  to  France  and  the  whole  world  of  the 
baseness  to  which  a  great  and  strong  government 
will  occasionally  stoop  to  gain  its  ends,  sometimes 
not  stopping  even  at  committing  a  second  and 
greater  crime  in  order  to  cover  up  thereby  a  lesser 
crime.  Time  was  working  on  the  side  of  the  great- 
ly wronged  man  and  his  friends.  Cabinet  changes 
continued  to  take  place  and  in  less  than  five  years 
after  his  liberation,  when  Clemenceau  was  pre- 
mier, his  case  was  once  more  taken  up  by  the  Su- 
preme Court.  By  that  time  the  old  prejudices  had 
begun  to  die  out,  and  the  French  nation  was  able 
to  see  more  clearly  and  to  judge  more  accurately. 
On  July  12,  1906,  the  long-looked-for  decision  of- 
that  court  was  finally  reached.  Dreyfus  was  for- 
mally cleared  of  all  guilt,  and  his  reinstatement  in 
the  army  with  full  honors  and  the  title  of  Major 
was  ordered.  At  the  same  time  full  reparation  was 
also  made  to  the  man  to  whom,  above  all  others, 
Dreyfus  owed  his  rescue,  he  who  for  the  sake  of 
truth  willingly  sacrificed  his  fortune,  his  career  and 
even  his  freedom — Colonel  Picquart,  who,  like- 
wise, was  reinstated  in  the  army  with  the  rank  of 
Brigadier-General.  Zola,  too,  though  now  dead, 
was  officially  restored  to  public  favor  and  given 
due  acknowledgment  for  his  share  in  the  unearth- 
ing of  the  fiendish  plot,  the  government  ordering 
that  his  remains  be  taken  from  Montmartre  and 
buried  with  all  possible  honors  among  France's 
many  distinguished  dead,  at  the  Pantheon. 

Before,  however,  the  advent  of  this  belated  jus- 


NORTHERN,    CENTRAL    AND    WESTERN    EUROPE          77 

tice  there  was  a  sad  aftermath  to  this  notorious  af- 
fair.   So  long  as  Dreyfus  was  still  held  to  be  guilty 
Antisemitism  remained  in  the  saddle  in  the  govern- 
ment and  especially  in  the  army,  where  Jewish  of- 
ficers were  constantly  subjected  to  humiliation  and 
Jewish  soldiers  were  maltreated  with  no  hope  of 
redress.     But  the  most  disastrous  consequences  of 
the  Dreyfus  affair  took  place  in  the  French  North 
African  colony  of  Algeria  which  for  many  cen- 
turies had  harbored  a  considerable  number  of  Jews. 
For  many  years  following  the  French  conquest  of 
the  colony  the  Jews  of  Algeria  were  treated  in  a 
step-motherly  fashion  by  France,  which  restricted 
and   annulled   many    of  their   century-old   rights, 
though  the  Jews  were  fast  assimilating  the  lan- 
guage and  the  culture  of  the  home-land  and  prov- 
ing themselves  valuable  propagandists  for  every- 
thing French.     This  attitude  of  the  government 
doubtless  influenced  the  native  Mussulmans  and 
the  colonizing  French  Christians.    When,  in  1870, 
the  French  government  finally  adopted  the  "Cre- 
mieux  Decree"  by  which  Algerian  Jews  were  fully 
emancipated,  instead  of  helping  to  remove  the  pre- 
vailing prejudices  the  measure  only  served  to  add 
to  them  by  arousing  a  feeling  of  jealousy  of  the 
Jews.    The  Antisemitic  incubus  in  France  reached 
out  its  hand  across  the  ocean  to  keep  burning  the 
fires  of  hate  in  Algeria  and  the  Dreyfus  affair 
served  as  an  excellent  pretext.    Here,  too,  the  Jews 
were  denounced  as  the  exploiters  of  the  land  and 
the  cause  of  its  economic  difficulties.    An  Italian  by 
the  name  of  Max  Regis,  who  settled  in  the  capital 
city  of  Algiers,  made  use  of  the  anti-Jewish  feel- 
ing for  his  own  political  advancement.    A  shrewd 
and  capable  leader,  he  succeeded  in  thoroughly  or- 
ganizing the  Antisemitic  forces  of  the  land,  and 
before  long  the  Jews  of  Algeria  found  their  situa- 
tion intolerable.     The  gospel  of  Jew-hatred  was 


78  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

preached  everywhere  and  through  all  available 
agencies.  In  May,  1897,  occurred  the  first  anti- 
Jewish  riots  at  the  town  of  Mostaganem,  resulting 
in  much  material  damage  in  which  not  even  the 
synagogue  was  spared.  This  incident  was  a  signal 
for  a  general  uprising  against  the  Jews  in  many 
places,  the  authorities,  from  Governor-General  Le- 
pine  down,  finding  themselves  totally  helpless  in  the 
face  of  the  enraged  mobs.  The  most  violent  of  all 
these  outbreaks  took  place  in  January,  1898,  in  the 
city  of  Algiers  whither  Drumont  had  come  over 
from  Paris  to  help  Max  Regis  in  his  infamous  cam- 
paign. Arrested  and  placed  on  trial,  Regis  was  ac- 
quitted. In  the  coming  elections  only  avowed  An- 
tisemites  were  returned  to  office,  Max  Regis  him- 
self becoming  the  Mayor  of  Algiers.  The  French 
government  felt  itself  powerless  against  the  Anti- 
semitic  forces  of  the  colony  and  capitulated  to  them 
by  removing  Lepine  as  Governor-General  and  ap- 
pointing in  his  place  a  man  himself  in  sympathy 
with  the  anti-Jewish  elements,  Laferriere,  whose 
first  act  of  unfriendliness  to  the  Jews  was  his  en- 
deavor to  obtain  a  general  amnesty  for  all  those 
against  whom  charges  were  pending  for  participa- 
tion in  the  disturbances.  This  encouragement  of 
the  Antisemites  led  to  new  excesses,  and  a  move- 
ment was  soon  set  on  foot  for  the  disfranchisement 
of  the  Jews  of  Algeria.  By  this  time  the  central 
government  must  have  realized  the  danger  its  mis- 
taken policy  entailed,  for  in  January,  1899,  about 
the  time  that  the  revision  of  the  Dreyfus  case  was 
ordered,  it  forced  the  removal  of  Max  Regis  from 
office  and  the  dissolution  of  the  Algiers  city  council. 
Regis  was  furthermore  placed  on  trial  for  disor- 
derly conduct  as  an  inciter  to  violence  and,  sen- 
tenced to  four  months'  imprisonment,  fled  from  Al- 
giers in  time  to  avoid  serving  his  term.  He  sought 
an  asylum  in  Belgium  only  to  be  deported  as  an 


NORTHERN,    CENTRAL    AND    WESTERN    EUROPE         79 

undesirable  visitor,  and  some  time  later,  when  again 
caught  in  Algiers  at  his  old  occupation  of  Jew-bait- 
ing, was  arrested  and  sentenced  to  three  years'  im- 
prisonment. He  and  his  confreres  also  suffered 
defeat  at  the  new  elections,  and  thenceforward 
there  was  a  subsiding  in  the  Antisemitic  propa- 
ganda in  Algeria. 

While  the  Dreyfus  agitation  in  France  was  at  its 
height  there  was  manifested  a  spirit  of  Antisemitic 
reaction  also  in  a  region  where  it  was  least  expect- 
ed— on  the  other  side  of  the  channel  and  in  the 
very  cradle  and  citadel  of  European  democracy — 
England.  The  closing  years  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury witnessed  a  feeling  of  uneasiness  and  depres- 
sion over  the  economic  and  industrial  prospects  of 
the  British  Empire.  For  a  number  of  generations 
mistress  of  the  world's  commerce  and  unrivalled  in 
her  prosperity,  England  now  felt  that  the  sceptre 
of  supremacy  was  about  to  be  snatched  from  her 
hand  by  the  other  Powers  which  within  a  few  dec- 
ades had  managed  to  build  up  a  great  world-trade 
—notably  Germany,  whose  scientific  and  industrial 
progress,  her  people's  unequalled  sturdiness  of 
character  and  frugality  of  living,  made  her  a  most 
formidable  rival.  This  fear  of  being  outdone  and 
superseded  by  other  nations  resulted  in  an  exag- 
gerated sense  of  nationalism  which,  in  the  light  of 
its  new  interpretations,  was  a  complete  departure 
from  the  traditional  English  conceptions  of  free- 
dom and  democracy.  To  retain  her  supreme  posi- 
tion as  a  world-trader,  Britain  was  ready  to  toler- 
ate a  radical  change  of  ethical  and  spiritual 
values;  material  considerations  were  placed  above 
those  of  justice  and  truth.  Essentially  a  people  of 
humane  ideals,  humanitarianism  now  became  with 
many  Englishmen  a  mere  luxurious  ornament  to 
be  dispensed  with  in  times  of  need.  The  country 
must  be  protected  against  the  outside  world  at  all 


8O  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

costs,  was  the  cry  that  rang  throughout  the  land. 
This  meant  an  increased  naval  armament  on  the 
seas,  as  an  answer  to  the  ambitious  naval  pro- 
gramme entered  upon  by  Germany;  it  meant  a 
tariff  protection  for  home  industries  against  for- 
eign products;  but  even  more  than  that,  it  meant 
the  locking  of  the  country's  gates  against  the  for- 
eign immigrant  who  was  being  looked  at  askance 
and  often  denounced  as  a  menace  to  Britain's  la- 
boring classes.  In  this  latter  move  it  was  the  Jew 
who  was  meant  and  who  was  hit  the  hardest. 
Since  the  reintroduction  of  the  mediaeval  regime 
of  Alexander  III  in  Russia,  and  the  outbreak 
there  of  the  fierce  anti-Jewish  riots  in  1881  and 
1882,  a  large  number  of  Russian  Jewish  refugees 
had  found  their  way  into  England — the  ever- 
ready  asylum  of  Europe's  politically  oppressed. 
While  hundreds  of  thousands  of  Russian  Jews 
merely  passed  through  the  English  seaport  cities 
on  their  way  to  America,  the  tens  of  thousands  of 
them  who  remained  to  take  up  their  permanent 
abode  in  the  land  soon  presented  a  problem  which 
the  professional  Antisemites  were  not  slow  to 
seize  upon  for  their  immoral  propaganda.  As  in 
the  large  seaboard  cities  of  America,  so  in  Eng- 
land, and  notably  in  London,  these  immigrants 
crowded  into  special  sections  of  the  city  and  built 
up  huge  ghettos  which  became  noted  for  their  ex- 
otic characteristics.  The  East  End  of  London 
became  a  counterpart  of  the  East  Side  of  New 
York,  only  more  thoroughly  Jewish  in  sentiment 
and  appearance,  and  also  more  strikingly  and  help- 
lessly poor.  In  their  search  for  their  daily  bread 
the  denizens  of  the  English  ghettos  began  to  com- 
pete with  the  native  laborers,  rushing  into  all 
available  occupations,  and  sometimes,  by  the  force 
of  necessity,  agreeing  to  work  at  reduced  pay. 
The  alleged  menace  of  this  alien  labor  soon  be- 


NORTHERN,   CENTRAL  AND  WESTERN  EUROPE  8l 

came  the  battle  cry  of  the  Antisemites,  which  was 
loudly  echoed  throughout  the  British  Isles.  It  is 
the  sad  fate  of  the  Jew  that  even  in  those  lands 
where  he  is  left  undisturbed,  and  Jew-hatred  is 
slow  in  coming  to  the  surface,  his  peace  is  con- 
ditional upon  the  pronounced  paucity  of  his  num- 
bers. No  sooner  does  he  increase  and  multiply 
than,  as  in  the  days  of  old  Egypt,  his  presence 
becomes  a  thorn  in  the  flesh  of  his  neighbors  and 
measures  are  resorted  to  for  his  suppression.  So 
with  English  Jewry,  fully  emancipated,  cultured 
and  prosperous,  which  until  the  arrival  of  the 
Russian  immigration  wave  was  of  exceedingly 
small  proportions  and  thus  able  to  bask  unper- 
turbed in  the  sunshine  of  its  numerical  insignifi- 
cance. The  coming  of  the  Russian  immigrants  in 
large  numbers  put  an  end  to  this  happy  state.  The 
Antisemitic  feeling  hitherto  dormant,  though  un- 
consciously kept  alive  by  the  agitation  in  Germany 
and  France,  now  found  something  tangible  to 
feed  upon.  The  alien  laborer,  meaning  the  East 
End  Jew,  was  denounced  as  the  cause  of  all  the 
economic  unrest  of  the  country.  It  mattered  not 
that  the  Jew  had  rendered  great  services  to  the 
land  of  his  birth  or  adoption  in  all  of  its  trials 
and  crises,  that  the  great  Jewish  financiers  had 
again  and  again  come  to  its  aid  in  its  financial 
difficulties,  that  the  very  supremacy  of  Great  Brit- 
ain as  an  empire  was  due  to  the  genius  of  a  Jew- 
ish statesman,  or  that  in  the  Boer  War  Jewish 
men  enlisted  in  the  army  far  above  their  propor- 
tion. The  world's  memory  is  lamentably  short 
where  the  Jew's  merits  and  his  services  are  con-, 
cerned. 

The  dormant  anti-Jewish  sentiment  now  became 
fully  aroused.  It  only  needed  an  opportunity. 
For  preachers  of  Antisemitism  have  not  been  lack- 
ing in  England  even  in  its  best  days.  The  sue- 


2  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

cess ful  outcome  of  the  struggle  for  Jewish  eman- 
cipation and  the  subsequent  rise  of  a  number  of 
Jews  to  high  positions  in  government  aroused  a 
feeling  of  jealousy  which  not  unseldom  found  ex- 
pression in  the  periodical  literature.  There  came 
a  time  in  England  when  a  Jew  did  not  have  to 
possess  a  conversion  certificate  to  enable  him  to 
secure  a  high  office.  Already  in  1885  Nathaniel 
Rothschild  was  elevated  to  the  dignity  of  Lord— 
the  first  Jew  to  be  so  honored — and  took  his  seat 
in  the  House  of  Lords.  Baron  Worms,  president 
of  the  Anglo-Jewish  Association,  later  became  Sec- 
retary of  Commerce,  while  quite  a  number  of 
Jews  served  as  Lord  Mayor  of  London,  Liverpool, 
Portsmouth,  Belfast  and  other  cities.  This  rapid 
advance  was  not  regarded  with  equanimity  by 
many  of  the  non-Jews,  and  every  now  and  then 
the  prophets  of  ill-will  and  racial  antagonism 
would  make  themselves  heard.  Within  the  mem- 
ory of  the  generation  of  the  beginning  of  the 
twentieth  century  there  still  lingered  the  impres- 
sion of  the  bigoted  onslaughts  upon  Lord  Bea- 
consfield  and  the  entire  Jewish  race  by  Goldwin 
Smith,  the  English-Canadian  Antisemite,  then  still 
living  in  Toronto.  English  journalists  like  Ed- 
mund Stead,  and  great  dailies  like  the  London 
"Times"  which  from  a  traditional  friend  of  the 
Jews  had,  through  the  influence  of  the  Russian 
government,  turned  into  an  uncompromising  foe, 
now  began  in  London  an  agitation  not  dissimilar 
to  that  of  Drumont  and  his  "La  France  Juive"  in 
Paris.  The  "undesirable  alien"  was  but  a  decep- 
tive term  for  "undesirable  Jew."  Arnold  White, 
one  of  the  bitterest  of  English  Jew-baiters,  in  a 
series  of  articles  denounced  the  presence  of  so 
many  foreign  Jews  in  England  as  a  "national 
evil."  Here  again  the  old  plaint  is  heard  that  the 
Jew  is  addicted  to  usury,  that  his  extreme  frugal- 


NORTHERN,   CENTRAL  AND  WESTERN  EUROPE  83 

ity  presents  an  element  of  dangerous  competition 
which  determines  not  the  survival  of  the  fittest 
but  "the  survival  of  the  fittest  to  exist  on  a  her- 
ring and  a  piece  of  black  bread."  The  Jew  is 
further  decried  as  dirty  and  unsanitary  in  his 
habits  and  housing  methods,  as  the  cause  of  low 
wages  and  high  rents,  and  as  the  back-bone  of 
the  sweating  system.  Nor  is  the  Jew  in  high  po- 
sition less  of  a  menace.  He  is  actuated  by  no 
motive  of  patriotism,  his  eyes  are  forever  fas- 
tened upon  his  own  gain,  he  is  ostentatious  and 
sensational,  a  pusher  and  a  climber.  English  An- 
tisemitism,  in  short,  showed  itself  a  very  apt  pu- 
pil of  the  continental  school  and  its  effect  was  felt 
in  the  colonies  no  less  than  in  the  home-land.  It 
was  soon  to  find  expression  in  special  legislation 
which  directed  against  aliens  was  really  aimed  at 
and  affected  the  Jews. 

Early  in  January,  1902,  a  Royal  Commission 
was  appointed  to  investigate  the  "alien  peril"  and, 
after  holding  no  less  than  forty-nine  sessions  and 
examining  nearly  two  hundred  witnesses,  reported 
that  while  "it  has  not  been  proved  that  there  is 
any  serious  direct  displacement  of  skilled  English 
labor,"  yet  "the  continuous  stream  of  fresh  ar- 
rivals produces  a  glut  in  the  unskilled  labor  mar- 
ket," and  recommended  the  exclusion  of  certain 
classes  of  immigrants  for  economic  and  moral 
reasons.  The  report  and  its  recommendation  was 
merely  an  echo  of  the  popular  sentiment  of  the 
country  and  more  especially  of  the  metropolis.  All 
England  seemed  determined  to  get  rid  of  this 
alien  problem,  and  members  of  Parliament  were 
entreated,  urged  and  warned  to  enact  drastic  laws 
of  exclusion.  An  "Immigration  Reform  Associa- 
tion" was  formed  in  1903  for  the  avowed  purpose 
of  waging  war  on  immigration  through  a  wide 
distribution  of  literature  on  the  subject.  On 


84  HISTORY   OF  THE  JEWS 

March  29,  1904,  a  bill  was  introduced  by  the 
Home  Secretary,  Mr.  Aker-Douglas,  "to  make 
provision  with  respect  to  the  immigration  of 
aliens,  and  other  matters  incidental  thereto."  A 
long  debate  ensued  in  parliament  over  the  pro- 
posed restrictions  which,  as  was  justly  pointed  out 
by  the  opponents  of  the  bill,  would  affect  princi- 
pally immigrants  fleeing  to  England  from  the  po- 
litical tyranny  of  the  home  government.  The  fore- 
most antagonist  of  the  measure,  Sir  Charles  Dilke, 
moved  an  amendment  that  parliament  "desires  to 
assure  itself,  before  assenting  to  the  Aliens  Bill, 
that  sufficient  regard  is  had  in  the  proposed  meas- 
ure to  the  retention  of  the  principle  of  asylum  for 
the  victims  of  persecution,"  and  in  defense  of  his 
motion  candidly  stated  that,  in  his  firm  belief,  the 
bill  was  the  result  of  anti-Jewish  feeling  and  was 
aimed  chiefly  at  Jewish  immigration.  Though  de- 
nied by  Mr.  Balfour,  the  Prime  Minister,  who 
stated  that  the  bill  was  aimed  at  undesirable 
aliens  irrespective  of  nationality  or  creed,  and  de- 
clared that  he  would  "regard  the  rise  and  growth 
of  any  Antisemitic  feeling  in  this  country  as  a 
most  serious  national  misfortune,"  it  was  never- 
theseless  true  that  the  country  demanded  the  ex- 
clusion of  the  Jew  and  that  the  professional  poli- 
ticians in  parliament  were  merely  carrying  out  the 
orders  of  their  constituents.  Popular  passion 
against  the  Jews  rose  in  all  of  the  social  strata 
and  among  the  laboring  classes  even  found  vent 
in  violent  outbreaks  such  as  England  had  not 
known  for  some  centuries.  In  Limerick,  Ireland, 
a  Catholic  priest  by  the  name  of  Creagh  deliv- 
ered many  venomous  harangues  against  the  Jews, 
as  a  result  of  which  a  mob  attacked  the  small 
colony  of  foreign  Jews  of  the  place,  wrecking 


NORTHERN,    CENTRAL    AND    WESTERN    EUROPE         85 

their  shops  and  ruining-  their  merchandise.*  An 
economic  boycott  was  subsequently  instituted 
which  resulted  in  great  hardship  to  the  Jews. 
Much  unrest  and  ill-will  was  manifested  also 
among  the  mountaineers  of  Wales  and  the  coal 
miners  of  Scotland.  The  agitation  of  the  press 
continued  unremittingly  and  even  in  the  polite  lit- 
erature of  the  day  a  strong  anti-Jewish  current 
was  noticeable.  A  woman-writer,  Violet  Gut- 
tenberg,  wrote  a  novel,  "A  Modern  Exodus,"  in 
which  she  describes  another  expulsion  of  the  Jews 
from  England  in  the  near  future.  The  wish  was 
assuredly  father  to  the  thought.  To  be  sure,  de- 
fenders of  the  Jews  were  not  wanting  in  a  coun- 
try of  such  liberal  traditions  and  democratic 
ideals,  some  of  the  noblest  Englishmen,  notably 


*  "Having  endowed  the  Jew  with  the  most  diabolical  character 
imaginable  and  traced  to  him  the  woes  of  the  Catholic  Church  in 
France,  the  preacher  concluded  by  exhorting  his  congregation  to 
have  no  dealings  with  the  people  whom  God  had  cursed.  As  a 
result  of  this  atrocious  sermon  no  Jew  or  Jewess  could  stir  abroad 
without  being  insulted  or  assaulted,  and,  when  the  priest's  exhorta- 
tion reached  the  open  country,  there  also,  as  in  Limerick,  the  Jews 
fell  a  prey  to  a  series  of  brutal  attacks,  until  the  preacher,  alarmed 
at  his  own  success,  urged  his  flock  to  desist  from  stoning  the  unbe- 
lievers but  try  to  starve  them.  The  good  people  readily  obeyed. 
They  not  only  ceased  to  deal  with  the  Jewish  peddlers,  but,  improv- 
ing on  their  pastor's  precepts,  refused  even  to  pay  what  they  owed 
to  them  for  goods  purchased  in  the  past.  And  while  Catholic  cus- 
tomers shunned  the  Jewish  tradesman.  Catholic  tradesmen  in  some 
cases  refused  to  sell  to  the  Jews  the  necessaries  of  life.  With  the 
exception  of  two  or  three  families,  the  small  Jewish  colony  of  Lim- 
erick was  reduced  to  utter  penury.  People  hitherto  in  comfortable 
circumstances  were  forced  to  sell  the  very  furniture  of  their  houses 
in  order  to  buy  food,  while  the  majority  of  them  were  saved  from 
starvation  only  by  the  charity  of  some  Protestant  gentlemen,  who, 
however,  were  obliged  to  observe  the  utmost  secrecy  in  rendering 
assistance  for  fear  of  drawing  down  upon  themselves  the  pious 
wrath  of  the  Redemptorist  Monks  and  of  the  six  thousand  brethren 
of  the  Confraternity  of  the  Holy  Family,  whose  fanaticism  the 
prophet  continued  to  inflame  with  his  historic  fictions.  This  state 
of  things  did  not  end  until,  public  opinion  being  roused  in  England, 
the  government  was  induced  to  take  adequate  measures  for  the 
protection  of  the  Jews  against  violence,  and  philanthropists  hast- 
ened to  their  relief.  Such  was  the  position  of  the  Jews  in  a 
part  of  Ireland  in  the  year  of  grace  1904."  (G.  F.  Abbott,  "Israel 
in  Europe,"  London,  1907,  p.  472.) 


86  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

many  of  the  Episcopal  clergy,  doing  their  utmost 
to  allay  the  popular  unrest  through  speeches  and 
articles  in  the  press.  The  Jews,  too,  led  by  Mr. 
Zangwill,  and  others,  were  quick  to  assert  their 
rights  and  endeavored  in  all  possible  wrays  to  avert 
the  contemplated  injustice.  A  delegation,  headed 
by  Lord  Rothschild,  waited  on  the  Under-Secre- 
tary  for  Home  Affairs  to  protest  against  the  pro- 
posed measure,  and  received  his  assurances  that 
the  bill  would  not  affect  the  Jews  as  such — a  state- 
ment which,  however,  had  but  little  meaning  in 
view  of  the  wording  of  the  bill. 

Defeated  the  first  time,  the  Aliens  Bill,  slightly 
changed  in  wording  but  not  in  substance,  was  re- 
introduced  in  the  House  of  Commons  on  April  18, 
1905,  this  time  to  meet  with  much  greater  favor. 
Many  of  those  who  had  voted  against  the  first  bill 
refrained  from  doing  so  now,  having  in  the  mean- 
time become  aware  of  the  temper  of  their  con- 
stituents. Thus  the  Aliens  Act  became  a  law  on 
August  n,  1905,  its  severity,  however,  being  miti- 
gated by  the  adoption  of  an  amendment  favoring 
such  immigrants  as  may  come  under  the  category 
of  refugees  from  political  or  religious  oppression. 
An  oppressive  measure  of  howsoever  mild  a  form, 
nevertheless,  it  has  become  and  has  served  the 
purpose  of  awakening  English  Jews  to  the  reali- 
zation that,  whether  native  or  foreign  born,  what- 
ever their  achievements  and  howsoever  great  their 
services,  they  cannot  look  for  recognition  and  true 
friendship  from  the  "real"  Englishmen.  Another 
sweet  Jewish  dream  of  peace  and  rest  thus  became 
shattered. 

Thus  did  Antisemitism  permeate  all  classes,  all 
trades  and  professions  in  nearly  every  country  in 
Europe  excepting  those  where  the  number  of  Jews 
was  so  infinitesimal  as  to  make  its  existence  im- 
possible because  unnecessary.  Devised  and  origi- 


NORTHERN,    CENTRAL    AND    WESTERN    EUROPE          87 

nated  by  the  Pope  as  an  offset  to  the  anti-Catholic 
campaign  in  Protestant  lands,  it  found  its  greatest 
strength  in  German-speaking  lands  where  it  was 
resorted  to  by  unscrupulous  politicians  for  their 
personal  advantage,  and  was  aided  and  abetted  by 
governments  no  less  false  and  self-seeking.  It 
found  its  expression  in  a  form  of  the  most  refined 
cruelty  in  France  which  thus,  unconsciously, 
played  into  the  hands  of  intriguers  and  trouble- 
makers from  Germany  whose  task  it  was  to  upset 
the  peace  and  mental  equilibrium  of  the  historic 
and  still  strong  enemy  of  the  fatherland.  Even 
democratic,  humane  and  liberal  England  fell  a 
prey  to  its  wiles,  while  French-speaking  Belgium 
with  her  less  than  10,000  Jewish  souls  followed 
in  the  wake  of  France,  even  as  Holland  found  it 
hard  to  withstand  the  influence  of  her  powerful 
German  cousin.  It  was  in  Russia,  however,  where 
the  German  example  was  followed  to  its  utmost 
logic  and,  serving  on  the  one  hand  as  a  justifica- 
tion for  the  harsh  treatment  that  had  always  been 
meted  out  to  the  Jews,  now  became  an  incentive 
to  still  greater  persecutions  leading  to  the  most 
horrible  bloodshed  and  the  blackest  anti-Jewish 
crimes  known  to  history.  This  hapless  story  of 
the  millions  of  Jews  of  Russia,  from  the  very  time 
they  came  under  the  rule  of  the  Czars,  shall  en- 
gage our  attention  in  the  following  chapter. 


CHAPTER  II 

RUSSIAN   EMPIRE 

When  we  speak  of  Russia  we  necessarily  in- 
clude all  that  portion  of  Poland  which  became 
part  of  the  empire  upon  the  former's  partition  in 
1772,  1793  and  again  in  1795.  What  is  known  as 
"White  Russia,"  consisting  of  the  two  govern- 
ments now  known  as  Mohilev  and  Vitebsk,  was 
taken  by  Russia  in  1772.  With  the  civil  war 
which  broke  out  in  Poland  over  the  Constitution 
of  1791,  Russia,  in  1793,  again  annexed  the  prov- 
inces of  Volhynia,  Podolia,  Minsk,  and  a  part  of 
Kiev.  The  third  and  final  partition  of  Poland,  in 
1795,  brought  to  Russia  the  present  governments 
of  Vilna  and  Grodno,  while  at  the  Congress  of 
Vienna  of  1815  the  Polish  possessions  of  Russia 
were  still  further  augmented  with  the  transfer  to 
her  dominion  of  all  the  territory  comprised  within 
the  short-lived  "Duchy  of  Warsaw."  Altogether, 
more  than  a  million  Jewish  souls  thus  came-  under 
the  rule  of  the  Czars,  a  number  which,  in  the 
course  of  the  next  one  hundred  years  was  in- 
creased to  more  than  six  million  souls,  forming  in 
1918,  prior  to  the  peace  with  Ukraine  and  the  So- 
viet Republic,  extorted  by  a  victorious  Germany, 
approximately  one-half  of  the  entire  Jewish  people 
and  the  largest  number  of  Jews  to  be  concentrated 
within  the  boundary  lines  of  any  one  country. 

What  is  known  as  the  "Jewish  Problem"  of 
Russia  dates  from  the  very  time  of  the  partition 
of  Poland.  Until  1772  there  were  scarcely  any 


RUSSIA  89 

Jews  in  the  empire.  For  a  long  time  Russian  rul- 
ers remained  firm  in  their  adherence  to  the  tradi- 
tional policy  of  keeping  the  frontiers  shut  tight 
against  a  Jewish  "invasion."  Peter  the  Great 
spoke  of  the  Jews  as  "rogues  and  cheats"  whom 
he  would  not  allow  "either  to  live  or  to  trade  in 
Russia,  whatever  efforts  they  may  make,  and 
however  much  they  may  try  to  bribe  those  near 
me."  The  presence  of  a  small  colony  of  Jews  in 
Little  Russia  was  obnoxious  to  the  government 
which,  in  1727,  issued  an  ukase  for  their  expul- 
sion. In  spite  of  this  there  were  many  thousands 
of  Jews  from  Germany  and  Poland  who  succeed- 
ed in  filtering  through  the  legal  barriers  and  to 
take  up  their  homes  in  various  sections,  for  in 
1744  another  decree  is  issued  by  Empress  Eliza- 
beth expelling  all  the  Jews  of  Little  Russia,  Li- 
vonia and  other  parts,  unless  they  would  submit  to 
baptism.  By  this  ukase  about  35,000  Jews  were 
driven  across  the  border.  Catherine  II  persisted 
in  a  like  policy  of  exclusion,  that  shrewd  and  ever 
scheming  German  princess  having  originated  the 
historic  and  infamous  phrase  Kromye  Zhydov 
("except  Jews")  in  her  manifesto  of  1762  in 
which  all  other  foreigners  were  permitted  to  travel 
and  live  in  Russia.  It  was  during  the  reign  of 
this  empress  that  Russia  received  her  Jewish  leg- 
acy of  Poland  with  the  first  partition  of  that  land. 
And  no  sooner  was  the  Polish  Jew  transformed 
into  a  Russian  subject  than  he  began  to  experi- 
ence the  full  meaning  of  the  change.  Whatever 
autonomy  the  Jewish  community  of  White  Russia 
enjoyed  under  the  Polish  regime  was  now  to  be 
taken  from  them.  The  Kahal,  or  Jewish  commu- 
nal administration,  was  to  lose  many  of  its  long- 
established  rights,  preparatory  to  its  being  en- 
tirely abolished  in  a  later  reign.  In  a  petition 
submitted  to  the  empress  in  1784,  the  Jews  state 


9O  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

their  many  grievances :  they  are  deprived  of  their 
main  sources  of  livelihood,  they  can  no  longer 
lease  inns  from  the  landed  proprietors,  they  can 
get  no  redress  from  the  courts  in  litigation  cases 
against  Christians,  their  rights  in  the  municipal 
electorates  are  denied  them.  Their  complaining 
helped  them  but  little,  for  her  Majesty  had  no  in- 
terest in  lightening  their  yoke,  but  rather  in  mak- 
ing it  heavier.  If  Catherine  had  no  choice  other 
than  to  receive  the  Polish  Jews  under  her  domin- 
ion .along  with  the  other  inhabitants  of  that  land, 
at  least  she  could  confine  them  to  Poland  and  pre- 
vent their  egress  to  the  "pure"  Russian  provinces. 
The  creation  of  the  Cherta,  or  Jewish  "Pale  of 
Settlement"  out  of  the  provinces  torn  from  Po- 
land, has  its  origin  in  the  ukase  of  1786  which 
declared  the  status  of  the  Jew  as  that  of  being 
permanently  attached  to  the  Polish  localities 
whence  he  originally  came.  What  was  at  first 
held  as  a  principle  was  later  made  into  a  law 
when,  in  the  Imperial  ukase  of  December  23,  1791, 
it  was  stated  that  "the  Jews  have  no  right  to  en- 
roll in  the  merchant  corporations  in  the  inner 
Russian  cities  or  ports  of  entry,  and  are  permit- 
ted to  enjoy  only  the  rights  of  townsmen  and 
burghers  of  White  Russia." 

The  short-lived  reign  of  Paul  (1796-1801)  saw 
no  change  for  the  better.  A  ray  of  hope,  how- 
ever, appeared  for  the  Jews  with  the  accession  of 
Alexander  I  (1801-1825).  This  ruler  entered 
upon  his  reign  with  many  good  intentions  for  the 
improvement  of  the  inner  affairs  of  his  vast 
realm,  and  his  desire  to  ameliorate  the  hapless  lot 
of  his  Jewish  subjects  seemed  genuine.  He  came 
under  the  influence  of  Western  European  ideas 
more  than  any  one  of  his  predecessors,  and  prob- 
ably was  'affected  by  the  high  intellectual  status 
attained  by  the  Jews  of  Germany,  as  was  illus- 


RUSSIA  gi 

trated  in  Moses  Mendelssohn,  whom  he  greatly 
admired.  The  French  Revolution  had  let  loose  a 
breeze  of  religious  liberalism  which  spread  all 
over  Europe,  greatly  strengthening  the  prospects 
for  political  emancipation  entertained  by  the  West 
European  Jews.  In  France  Michel  Berr,  who  had 
the  distinction  of  being  the  first  French  Jewish 
privy-councillor,  issued  his  famous  appeal  in  the 
name  of  the  "European  Inhabitants  Professing 
the  Jewish  Religion,"  asking  for  justice  to  the  Jew 
at  the  hands  of  the  nations  and  their  sovereigns, 
which  made  a  deep  impression  upon  public  opin- 
ion in  Europe  and  could  not  have  escaped  the  at- 
tention of  the  young  emperor.  In  Russia,  too,  a 
gifted  and  energetic  champion  of  his  Jewish 
brethren  arose  in  the  person  of  Loeb  (Lyev) 
Nevakhovich  (1776-1831).  Talmudist  and  lin- 
guist, an  admirer  and  follower  of  Mendelssohn 
and  his  school,  the  possessor  of  much  literary  tal- 
ent as  a  prose  writer  and  playwright,  Nevakhov- 
ich was  encouraged  by  the  liberal  attitude  of  Al- 
exander to  raise  his  voice  in  behalf  of  his  down- 
trodden people,  and  in  1803  published  in  both 
Russian  and  Hebrew  his  "Cry  of  the  Daughter  of 
Judah"  in  which  he  pleads  for  tolerance  and  jus- 
tice, pointing  out  the  merits  of  Judaism  as  a  re- 
ligion making  for  virtue  and  rightousness,  and 
assuring  the  Russian  people  upon  an  oath  "that 
the  Jew  who  preserves  his  religion  undefiled  can 
be  neither  a  bad  man  nor  a  bad  citizen."  This 
impassioned  plea  must  doubtless  have  had  some 
effect  upon  the  legislators  engaged  in  the  task  of 
framing  laws  in  connection  with  the  Jewish  situ- 
ation, though  Nevakhovich  himself  proved  unequal 
to  his  own  enthusiasm  for  Judaism,  which  he  for- 
sook only  six  years  after  his  appeal  was  given  to 
the  world. 

In  1802  Alexander  issued  an  ukase  summoning 


92  HISTORY    OF   THE   JEWS 

a  special  "Committee  for  Ameliorating  the  Condi- 
tion of  the  Jews,"  which  body  met  for  two  years 
and  ended  in  the  drafting  of  the  "Statute  concern- 
ing the  Organization  of  the  Jews"  (December  9, 
1804).  This  new  measure  provided  for  an  en- 
largement of  the  "Pale"  by  adding  to  it  the  two 
inner  Russian  Governments  of  Astrakhan  and 
Caucasia,  but  at  the  same  time  also  narrowed  it 
down  by  the  provision  that  Jews  could  no  longer 
live  in  the  rural  settlements  or  villages,  hold  leases 
on  land  there,  keep  taverns,  saloons  or  inns— 
thus  depriving  hundreds  of  thousands  of  Jews  of 
one  of  their  chief  means  of  earning  a  living  under 
the  existing  conditions.  On  the  other  hand  per- 
mission was  granted  them  to  buy  and  rent  land  in 
all  the  southern  and  western  provinces  for  agri- 
cultural purposes,  to  send  their  children  to  the  ele- 
mentary and  higher  schools,  to  establish  factories 
in  the  provinces  where  they  were  allowed  to  live, 
and  to  travel  in  all  the  rest  of  the  empire  for  busi- 
ness purposes  on  conditicyi  that  they  adopt  the 
West  European  style  of  dress.  Manufacturers 
and  artisans  were  exempted  from  the  special  tax- 
ation imposed  upon  Jewish  merchants  or  burgh- 
ers dwelling  in  the  cities.  Full  citizenship  rights 
were  promised  them  as  a  reward  for  diligence  and 
skill  in  agriculture  and  the  handicrafts.  To  show 
his  good-will  to  the  Jews  the  emperor  in  1805  do- 
nated 3,000  roubles  for  the  erection  of  a  Jewish 
hospital  in  Vilna,  and  some  time  later  granted  an 
annual  subvention  of  2,500  roubles  for  the  main- 
tenance of  the  same  institution.  To  promote  the 
carpet  industry  among  them  he,  in  1808,  caused  a 
carpet  factory  to  be  established  in  Kremenchug, 
at  the  same  time  granting  them  permission  to  live 
in  Kiev.  Despite  the  economic  hardships  brought 
upon  them  by  the  statute  of  1804,  the  Jews  never- 
theless appreciated  the  apparently  good  intentions 


RUSSIA  93 

of  the  sovereign  and  in  the  War  of  1812  displayed 
much  patriotism  and  rendered  valuable  services 
in  the  struggle  against  the  French. 

The  liberality  of  the  emperor  was  further  man- 
ifested in  the  encouragement  he  extended  to  lead- 
ing Jewish  merchants  to  act  as  purveyors  of  food 
and  other  necessities  for  the  Russian  armies,  two 
such  Jews,  Sundel  Sonnenberg,  of  Grodno,  and 
Eliezer  Dillon,  of  Nesvizh,  being  found  often  at 
army  headquarters  where  they  had  access  to  the 
leading  government  officials  and  sometimes  even 
to  the  emperor  himself.  They  made  use  of  the 
opportunity  thus  thrown  in  their  way  of  acquaint- 
ing the  emperor  with  the  sufferings  endured  by 
their  co-religionists,  and  Alexander  was  not  dis- 
inclined to  help  them,  both  from  humanitarian 
motives  and  because  the  political  situation,  inci- 
dental to  the  Napoleonic  Wars,  made  a  liberal 
policy  towards  the  Jews  advisable.  In  June,  1814, 
he  assured  his  Jewish  subjects  through  these  Jew- 
ish representatives  that  he  would  issue  shortly  "an 
ordinance  concerning  their  wishes  and  requests 
for  an  immediate  amelioration  of  their  present 
condition,"  this  promise  being  followed  in  1815  by 
an  order  that  a  census  be  taken  of  all  the  Jews  of 
Russia,  and  that  surnames  be  given  to  all  Jewish 
families.  At  about  that  time  the  emperor,  evi- 
dently still  remembering  the  Sanhedrin  convoked 
by  Napoleon  eight  years  previously,  conceived  the 
plan  of  establishing  in  St.  Petersburg  a  perma- 
nent advisory  council  of  representatives  of  the 
Jews  elected  by  the  various  Kahals,  and  the  com- 
munities of  the  "Pale"  were  accordingly  ordered, 
in  the  autumn  of  that  year,  to  choose  two  electors 
from  each  of  the  eleven  governments.  This  elec- 
toral college  met  in  Vilna  in  August,  1818,  to  elect 
from  amongst  themselves  the  three  deputies  au- 
thorized by  the  government,  together  with  three 


94  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

substitutes  or  alternates.  Besides  Sonnenberg 
and  Dillon,  the  four  other  men  elected  were  Mi- 
chael Eisenstadt,  Benish  Lapkovski  and  Marcus 
Veitelson — all  from  Vitebsk,  and  Samuel  Epstein 
of  Vilna.  The  money  requisite  for  the  mainte- 
nance of  these  deputies  at  the  capital  was  raised 
by  the  Jews  through  a  self-imposed  tax.  In  that 
same  year,  at  the  Congress  of  Aix-la-Chapelle,  the 
Czar  listened  indulgently  to  a  plea  in  behalf  of 
the  Jews  made  to  him  by  the  Englishman  Louis 
Way — an  enthusiastic  advocate  of  emancipation 
for  the  Jews  as  a  means  of  their  ultimate  Chris- 
tianization — and  even  agreed  to  have  Nesselrode; 
his  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  present  Way's 
memorandum  for  the  consideration  of  the  Con- 
gress. The  inference  might  clearly  be  drawn  that 
what  he  asked  in  behalf  of  the  Jewish  subjects  of 
other  sovereigns  this  Emperor  would  be  glad  to 
grant  before  long  to  his  own  Jews. 

The  reaction  which  soon  set  in,  however,  was 
already  then  on  its  way.  For  by  this  time  Alex- 
ander was  fast  coming  under  the  spell  of  Greek- 
Catholic  mysticism  and  his  friendly  attitude  to- 
ward the  Jews  took  a  turn  in  the  direction  of 
Christianization.  His  willingness  to  lend  assist- 
ance to  Louis  Way's  proposal  came  doubtless  from 
the  same  consideration.  For  their  lasting  politi- 
cal good,  and  as  a  condition  of  their  complete 
emancipation,  the  Czar  believed  that  efforts  should 
be  made  for  their  conversion  to  the  dominant 
faith,  and,  aided  by  Golitizin,  his  Minister  of  Ec- 
clesiastical Affairs  and  head  of  a  Bible  society  for 
missionary  purposes,  entered  upon  a  scheme  of 
proselytism  which  had  its  beginning  in  the  for- 
mation in  1817  of  a  "Society  of  Israelitish  Chris- 
tians." Such  Jews  as  would  become  Christians, 
either  of  the  Greek-Catholic  or  the  Lutheran  de- 
nomination, were  to  receive  portions  of  crown- 


RUSSIA  95 

lands  with  full  civil  equality  and  a  liberal  meas- 
ure of  communal  self-government.     Though  this 
scheme  proved  abortive  from  the  first,  the  mate- 
rialistic advantages  and  political  privileges  acting 
as  no  bait   for  the  Jews,   the  emperor  continued 
his   efforts  and  in   1820  set  aside  a  considerable 
tract  of  land  in  the   Yekaterinoslav  government 
for  all  prospective  "Israelitish  Christians."     The 
failure  of  this  pet  scheme  was  the  cause  of  much 
disappointment  to  the  well-intentioned  ruler  and 
his  chagrin  was  greatly  increased  by  the  discov- 
ery that  there  was  a  "Judaizing"  movement  in  the 
interior  of  Russia  among  his  supposedly  faithful 
Christian  subjects.     These  Russian  proselytes  to 
Judaism  known  as  "Subbotniki"  or   Sabbath  ob- 
servers, experienced  a  change  of  heart  independ- 
ently of  any  outside  influence,  and  their  organi- 
zation dated  from  the  year  1806.     They  observed 
a  number  of  Jewish  ceremonies,  such  as  Sabbath 
rest    on    Saturday,    circumcision,    the    prescribed 
marriage  and  divorce  laws,  the  Jewish  manner  of 
burial,  etc.     In  .the  governments  of  Tula,  Voro- 
nezh, Orlov  and  Saratov,  thousands  of  such  ne- 
ophytes were  discovered  and  the  disclosure  of  the 
startling  fact  that  Christians  were  going  over  to 
Judaism  at  the  risk  of  persecution  and  suffering 
while  Jews  could  not  be  lured  into  Christianity  no 
matter  what  the  bait,   was  a  severe  blow  to  the 
vanity  and  self-confidence  of  the  pious  autocrat. 
Severe  measures  were  soon  adopted  for  the  re- 
turn  of   the    recalcitrants   to   their   mother- faith. 
Their  settlements  were  laid  waste  and  many  thou- 
sands of  them  were  exiled  to  Siberia  and  the  Cau- 
casus.    This  occurrence  boded  no  good   for  the 
Jews  of  the  empire,  though  they  were  clearly  not 
to  blame.     Henceforth  Alexander's  policy  toward 
them  was  to  undergo  a  radical  change;  from  "be- 
nevolent absolutism"  it  was  to  turn  into  an  undis- 


g  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

guised  despotism.  Speransky,  the  one  great  and 
liberal  Minister  Russia  had  yet  produced,  whom 
Napoleon  styled  "the  only  clear  head  in  Russia," 
was  dismissed,  and  the  Czar  abandoned  himself 
completely  to  the  reactionary  influences  which 
now  dominated  his  court.  The  "Jewish  Deputa- 
tion" at  the  capital  was  abolished  and  the  last 
years  of  the  Czar's  life  were  marred  by  a  number 
of  anti-Jewish  enactments.  On  May  4,  1820,  he 
promulgated  his  rescript  prohibiting  jews  from 
employing  Christian  domestics  on  the  ground  of 
the  Jews'  tendency  for  proselytizing.  In  1823  he 
issued  a  rigorous  ukase  ordering  the  expulsion  of 
all  Jews  from  the  villages  and  hamlets  of  the 
Governments  of  Vitebsk  and  Mohilev.  By  the 
force  of  peculiar  historic  antecedents,  going  back 
to  the  economic  conditions  in  old  Poland  when  the 
Jew  was  the  intermediary  between  the  Pan,  or 
nobleman,  and  his  serfs,  very  many  Polish  Jews 
had  taken  up  their  homes  in  the  villages  and  re- 
sorted to  inn-keeping  and  liquor-selling  as  a  means 
of  livelihood.  Whatever  moral  or  economic  evils 
to  the  peasantry  there  may  have  come  from  this 
traffic,  the  blame  for  it  was  plainly  not  that  of  the 
Jews.  They  were  now  to  be  deprived  of  this 
source  without  any  provision  being  made  for  their 
maintenance  in  the  towns  and  cities  to  which  they 
were  driven.  This  was  followed  in  1824  by  the 
edict  forbidding  foreign  Jews  to  settle  permanent- 
ly in  Russia.  By  that  time  a  new  "Committee 
for  Ameliorating  the  Condition  of  the  Jews"  had 
been  formed  by  royal  decree,  which,  however,  as 
was  revealed  several  years  later,  had  for  its  real 
object  "the  devising  of  ways  and  means  looking 
generally  toward  the  reduction  of  the  number  of 
Jews  in  the  monarchy."  Thus  ended  a  reign  the 
beginnings  of  which  promised  a  most  glorious  era 
for  the  Jews  and  for  all  Russia  and  which,  had 


RUSSIA  97 

the  Czar  been  possessed  of  a  stronger  character, 
might  have  justified  the  hopes  of  his  Jewish  sub- 
jects for  their  gradual  and  ultimate  emancipation. 
The  proselytizing  measures  adopted  by  Alex- 
ander, and  the  evil  political  and  economic  conse- 
quences which  their  failure  brought  to  the  Jews, 
resulted  in  putting  them  more  than  ever  on  their 
guard  against  whatever  reforms  the  government 
was  henceforth  to  undertake  for  the  amelioration 
of  their  lot,  the  not  ungrounded  fear  being  in- 
stilled in  their  hearts  that  all  such  schemes  were 
merely  snares  for  their  estrangement  from  Juda- 
ism. Never  did  the  heart  of  Polish  Jewry  beat 
truer  to  the  ancient  faith  than  in  those  first  two 
generations  of  Russian  dominion  with  their  end- 
less fears  and  anxieties,  their  hopes  and  disap- 
pointments and  final  lapse  into  a  recrudescent 
medisevalism  at  the  close  of  Alexander's  reign. 
The  two  great  parties  of  Polish  Jewry,  the  Rab- 
binites  called  Mitnagdim,  and  the  Hassidim  were 
then  at  the  height  of  their  power  and  influence, 
the  former  receiving  its  inspiration  from  the 
saintly  R.  Elijah,  Gaon  of  Yilna  (1720-1797),  the 
man  who  brought  a  complete  transformation  in 
the  educational  methods  of  the  Jews  by  doing 
away  with  the  hair-splitting  scholasticism,  or 
pilpul,  in  vogue  until  his  time  and  substituting  the 
method  of  direct  textual  analysis  in  the  study  of 
the  Talmud — and  the  latter  deriving  its  impetus 
from  Israel  Baal  Shem  Tob  (1700-1760),  the  re- 
puted wonderworker  who  secured  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  followers  by  teaching  a  religion  of 
joy  and  enthusiasm  in  worship,  and  a  life  marked 
by  freedom  from  care  and  \vorry.  Both  these 
sects  had  their  strongholds,  the  Mitnagdim  in 
Lithuania,  and  the  Hassidim  in  South-Western 
Russia,  Volhynia  and  Podolia.  At  times  there 
arose  bitter  hostility  between  them,  resulting  in 


98  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

verbal  attacks  and  sometimes  leading  to  economic 
persecutions  and  even  denunciation  of  each  other 
before  the  government.  At  the  bottom,  all  this 
strife  and  enmity  emanated  from  a  zeal  for  God 
and  the  Torah,  and  was  therefore  in  reality  a 
holy  war  which  intensified  rather  than  diminished 
their  religious  ardor.  Political  emancipation  was 
desirable,  and  the  need  for  full  civic  equality  be- 
came greater  with  the  passing  of  the  years,  yet 
not  for  a  moment  would  those  Jews  consider  the 
purchasing  of  their  rights  as  men  at  the  price  of 
their  religion  as  Jews.  In  this  both  the  Hassidim 
and  the  Mitnagdim  were  a  unit.  They  would 
rather  be  Jews  in  penury  and  humiliation  than 
renegades  in  affluence.  This  was  the  opinion  ex- 
pressed by  Rabbi  Shneor  Zalman,  the  noted  Has- 
sidic  leader,  on  the  occasion  of  the  French  inva- 
sion in  1812:  "Should  Bonaparte  win,  the  wealth 
of  the  Jews  will  be  increased,  and  their  civic  po- 
sition will  be  raised.  At  the  same  time  their 
hearts  will  be  estranged  from  our  Heavenly 
Father.  Should,  however,  our  Czar  Alexander 
\vin,  the  Jewish  hearts  will  draw  nearer  to  our 
Heavenly  Father,  though  the  poverty  of  Israel 
may  become  greater  and  his  position  lower."  Fol- 
lowing in  the  spirit  of  the  Vilna  Gaon,  his  dis- 
ciple, Rabbi  Hayim  Volozhiner,  founded  the  fa- 
mous Yeshiba  or  Rabbinical  School  at  Volozhin 
(1803)  which  for  fully  a  century  kept  aglow  the 
light  of  the  Torah  by  educating  thousands  of 
young  men  in  Talmudical  literature,  some  of 
whom  became  the  great  rabbinical  celebrities  of 
Russian  Jewry  in  the  last  one  hundred  years, 
while  others,  contrary  to  the  hopes  and  expecta- 
tions of  the  founders  of  the  institution,  won  much 
distinction  as  leaders  of  their  people  in  the  move- 
ment for  secular  enlightenment  known  as  Has- 
kalah.  This  latter  movement,  of  which  more 


RUSSIA  99 

will  be  said  here  presently,  meritorious  in  many  of 
its  phases  and  aiming-  at  the  welfare  of  the  Jews, 
became  in  the  heyday  of  its  glory  a  snare  and  a 
delusion  to  Russian  Israel.  Its  evil  effects,  how- 
ever, were  mitigated  by  the  intense  religiosity  and 
the  devotion  to  Jewish  ideals  of  both  the  Rab- 
binites  and  the  Hassidim  who  held  spiritual  sway 
in  Russia  down  to  the  last  two  decades  of  the 
nineteenth  century. 

The  darkened  horizon  of  Russian  Jewry  be- 
came even  more  overcast  with  the  accession  of 
Nicholas  I  (1825-1855).  This  relentless  despot 
possessed  all  the  failings  and  weaknesses  of  his 
brother,  with  none  of  his  virtues.  His  one  aim 
was  to  transform  the  entire  fabric  of  Russia's 
national  life  after  the  military  pattern  where  sub- 
ordination to  the  government  was  to  be  exacted 
through  strictest  discipline.  Individuality  was  to 
be  crushed  and  uniformity  in  all  .things — language, 
dress,  and  if  possible  religion — rigidly  enforced. 
Where  Alexander  was  an  admirer  of  West-Euro- 
pean life  Nicholas  loathed  and  dreaded  all  things 
Western,  seeing  across  the  border  line  the  hot-bed 
of  political  liberalism  which  had  made  possible 
the  French  Revolution  and  had  given  vent  to  those 
free  ideas  of  government  which  influenced  his 
own  subjects  to  rise  in  the  Decembrist  revolution 
with  which  his  own  reign  was  inaugurated.  Alex- 
ander had  sought  to  establish  Russia's  prestige 
abroad  by  giving  it  a  semblance  of  Occidentalism; 
Nicholas  ruthlessly  brushed  aside  whatever  veneer 
of  Western  progressivity  Russia  affected,  believ- 
ing that  "the  greatness  of  Russia  abroad  depend- 
ed on  tyranny  at  home."  His  guiding  principles 
were  Autocracy,  Russian  Nationalism,  and  Rus- 
sian Orthodoxy,  and  it  was  to  enforce  these  three 
things  that  he  set  out  immediately  upon  his  suc- 
cession to  the  throne.  Endowed  with  great  en- 


IOO  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

ergy  and  an  iron  will,  Nicholas  was  convinced  of 
his  ability  to  carry  out  his  programme  of  Russifi- 
cation  throughout  the  empire.  Protestants,  Ro- 
man Catholics  and  Jews  alike  were  to  be  thrown 
into  the  autocratic  melting-pot  to  become  of  one 
flesh  and  one  spirit  with  "Holy  Russia." 

Of  all  his  non-conformist  subjects,  the  Jews 
presented  the  greatest  obstacle  to  the  realization 
of  his  plans,  and  the  Czar  knew  it.  He,  therefore, 
turned  his  attention  to  them  with  all  the  energy 
and  powder  at  his  command.  Hating  them  for 
their  ancestral  belief  and  mistrusting  them  for 
their  racial  clannishness,  Nicholas  still  appreci- 
ated their  economic  usefulness  to  the  country,  and 
while  he  was  anxious  to  lose  them  as  Jews  he 
would  yet  retain  them  as  Christians.  He  deter- 
mined "to  diminish  the  number  of  Jews  in  the 
empire,"  to  use  the  expression  of  an  official  docu- 
ment, by  encouraging  the  baptism  of  as  many  of 
them  as  possible  and  by  so  utterly  ruining  the 
others  economically  as  would  ultimately  lead  to 
their  physical  extermination  and  render  their 
few  surviving  numbers  of  negligible  importance. 
Henceforth  all  Jews  persistently  loyal  to  their 
faith  were  to  be  proscribed  and  marked  as  special 
targets  for  legislative  persecution  and  official 
abuse,  while  the  renegades  among  them  were  to 
receive  special  consideration  and  be  placed  upon  a 
level  of  equality  with  Christian  subjects.  In  ad- 
dition, baptised  Jews  were  exempted  from  all  tax- 
ation for  three  years,  and,  in  like  manner,  Jewish 
murderers  and  other  criminals  were  to  be  treated 
with  special  leniency  if  converted.  As  these  meas- 
ures failed  to  bring  the  desired  results,  Nicholas 
decided  upon  a  more  direct  attack  upon  the  Jews, 
the  severity  of  which,  he  felt  assured,  would  soon 
bring  the  stiff-necked  tribe  into  the  fold,  namely 
conscription  in  the  army.  Hitherto  the  Jews,  like 


RUSSIA  IOI 

the  Russian  merchant  class,  were  free  from  mili- 
tary service  upon  the  payment  of  a  specified  an- 
nual sum.  On  September  7,  1827,  Nicholas  is- 
sued an  ukase  requiring  the  Jews  to  render  per- 
sonal service  in  the  army,  though  they  were  to 
continue  paying  the  exemption  tax  as  before. 
Moreover,  where  Christians  had  to  furnish  only 
seven  recruits  for  every  thousand  of  their  popula- 
tion, the  Jewish  quota  was  fixed  at  ten  per  every 
thousand  with  none  of  the  customary  exemptions 
allowed  to  the  Christians.  The  Karaites  alone 
were  excepted  in  this  legislation  on  the  alleged 
ground — showing  the  pitiful  ignorance  of  Jewish 
history  of  the  heads  of  that  government — that 
they  had  no  share  in  the  crucifixion  of  Jesus,  their 
forefathers  having  emigrated  from  Palestine  be- 
fore that  event.  These  anti-Jewish  discrimina- 
tions were  plainly  devised  as  a  proselytizing 
scheme.  Service  in  the  Russian  army,  at  no  time 
a  pleasant  task,  was  a  most  cruel  and  debasing 
ordeal  at  this  time.  The  term  of  service  was 
twenty-five  years,  and  those  conscripted  were  con- 
veyed to  distant  provinces  in  the  interior  of  Rus- 
sia, or  to«  Siberia  where,  detached  from  their  Jew- 
ish environment,  they  could  the  more  easily  be 
brought  under  the  influence  of  the  Christian 
Church.  The  age  of  conscription  was  from  twelve 
to  twenty-five  and,  as  many  of  the  adult  and  able- 
bodied  men  fled  for  fear  of  enforced  baptism, 
most  of  the  recruits  were  children.  Even  so,  the 
Kahals,  or  Jewish  communities,  were  unable  to 
fitrnish  the  required  number  of  recruits,  and 
things  grew  from  bad  to  worse  since  for  every 
unfurnished  conscript  the  Government  exacted  two 
in  his  stead.  For  lack  of  recruiting  material  the 
Kahals  found  themselves  constrained  to  recruit 
invalids,  cripples  and  old  men.  As  even  this  meas- 
ure failed  to  supply  the  required  number,  the  gov- 


IO2  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

eminent,  in  1853,  authorized  the  Kahals  to  seize 
within  their  precincts  all  Jews  belonging  to  other 
communities  and  not  having  the  necessary  pass- 
ports, and  to  furnish  them  as  their  own  recruits. 
In  this  manner  brother  was  set  against  brother, 
and  no  man  was  safe  against  seizure  even  in  his 
home-town.  Passports  were  often  stolen  to  the 
undoing  of  their  owners,  and  men  were  condemned 
as  "poimaniki"  (the  seized  ones)  on  the  least  sus- 
picion or  provocation.  Yet  even  this  reign  of  ter- 
ror did  not  suffice  to  satisfy  the  bigoted  Nicholas. 
To  add  to  the  horror  he  ordered  the  seizure  and 
abduction  of  children,  boys  of  twelve  or  younger. 
These,  known  as  "Cantonists,"  were  snatched 
from  the  arms  of  their  mothers  and  conveyed  in 
large  groups  to  distant  Russian  provinces  like 
Perm  and  Nizhni-Novgorod,  where  they  were 
placed  in  peasant  families  there  to  be  baptized 
and  grow  up  as  members  of  the  "true  faith." 
Many  of  these  conscripts  held  on  to  their  Jewish 
beliefs  despite  their  alien  and  Christian  surround- 
ings, often  at  the  risk  of  being  flogged,  tortured 
and  starved.  For  thirty  years  this  dreadful  sys- 
tem remained  in  force,  Alexander  II  abandoning 
it  in  1857  only  at  the  continued  remonstrance  and 
loathing  of  the  more  civilized  countries  of  West- 
ern Europe,  but  not  until  it  had  done  its  worst  in 
wrecking  the  Jewish  household  in  Russia  morally 
and  physically,  and  leaving  an  open  wound  in  the 
heart  of  the  martyred  people  which  would  not 
heal  for  many  years  to  come. 

Great  as  was  the  resistance  of  the  Russian  Jews 
against  these  conversionist  methods,  and  futile 
as  these  methods  proved  as  a  ..whole  in  bringing 
about  the  results  looked  for  by  Nicholas,  it  is  nev- 
ertheless true  that  a  great  many  of  them  were  not 
strong  enough  to  withstand  the  sufferings  thus 
heaped  upon  them,  or  to  resist  the  allurements 


RUSSIA  IO3 

held  out  to  them  by  way  of  material  gain  and  po- 
litical advancement  in  case  of  their  baptism. 
When  Dr.  Max  Lilienthal  came  to  Russia  in  1839 
he  found  that  there  were  no  less  than  forty  thou- 
sand such  converts  in  Petersburg  and  Moscow. 
He  gives  a  graphic  account  of  the  moral  suffer- 
ings endured  by  those  people  in  the  following 
words : 

"I  made  the  acquaintance  of  a  great  many  of 
them,  and  they  feel  inexpressible  pangs  and  tor- 
tures of  conscience.  While  on  the  one  hand  they 
try  to  appease  their  uneasiness  by  the  fair  pros- 
pect that  is  opened  for  their  children,  by  the  sat- 
isfaction that  they  are  exempt  from  the  continual 
reactions  and  exceptional  laws  to  which  their  for- 
mer co-religionists  are  exposed,  on  the  other  hand, 
when  in  the  company  of  Jews,  they  show  them- 
selves so  awkward  and  uneasy  that  we  cannot 
help  but  pity  them.  They  despise  the  heathen 
idolatry  of  the  Russian  Church,  but  do  not  dare, 
for  fear  of  Siberia,  to  betray  themselves  by  a  sin- 
gle word.  Their  heart  still  clings  with  all  the 
Jewish  fervor  to  the  holy  Shema  Yisrael,  but  nev- 
ertheless they  feel  attracted  by  the  wealth  and 
luxury  that  surround  them.  They  try  to  conceal 
their  Jewish  jargon  and  do  not  wish  to  be  re- 
minded of  their  Jewish  origin,  but  nevertheless 
on  the  Jewish  New  Year's  Day  and  Day  of 
Atonement  remorse  pursues  them  like  an  evil 
spectre,  and  thus  their  life  is  one  of  uneasiness, 
repentance,  luxury  and  apprehension. 

"The  emperor  appointed  some  of  the  converted 
Jews  to  high  offices  in  the  state,  in  order  to  al- 
lure others  to  follow  the  example  of  their  treach- 
ery; thus  one  of  his  private  secretaries  and  coun- 
selors of  state,  with  whom  he  liked  best  to  work, 
was  the  converted  Jew  Posen.  Another,  Feigin, 
was  the  right  hand  of  the  late  Minister  of 


IO4  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

Finance,  Count  Kankrin,  and  in  trade  and  busi- 
ness a  great  many  acquired  wealth  and  influence. 
There  are  but  three  Jewish  families  who  as  Jews 
and  dentists  were  permitted  to  remain  in  St. 
Petersburg:  Two  brothers  Wagenheim,  of  whom 
the  elder  one  is  the  dentist  of  the  emperor,  and 
Wallerstein,  all  of  them  holding  many  appoint- 
ments in  the  different  imperial,  civil  and  military 
academies;  and  a  widow,  Mrs.  Brown,  lives  there 
as  midwife,  attached  to  the  imperial  household." 

It  was  surely  one  of  the  many  hoaxes  history 
every  now  and  then  perpetrates  upon  those  in 
high  places,  that  none  but  the  hated  and  despised 
Jews  were  found  eligible  and  capable  enough  to 
attend  to  Nicholas'  imperial  teeth,  and  that  the 
very  members  of  his  household,  who  later  them- 
selves led  in  the  attack  on  the  Jewish  race,  were 
brought  into  the  world  through  the  skill  and  abil- 
ity of  a  contemned  Jewish  midwife. 

But  the  Jews  persisted  in  their  refusal  to  be 
"reduced"  in  number.  Like  the  Children  of  Is- 
rael in  Pharaoh's  day,  they  rather  kept  on  multi- 
plying and  increasing  despite  all  the  oppressive 
governmental  measures  and  their  dire  economic 
distress.  In  vain  did  Nicholas  resort  to  new  op- 
pressions, each  of  them  more  tyrannical  and  in- 
human than  the  foregoing.  Applying  to  the  Jews 
of  the  Grodno,  Kiev  and  Podolia  Governments  the 
act  of  expulsion  carried  out  by  Alexander  I  in 
the  Governments  of  Vitebsk  and  Mohilev,  he 
caused  thousands  of  them  to  be  expelled  from 
their  rural  homes  and  to  be  thrown  into  the  al- 
ready overcrowded  cities  and  towns.  The  osten- 
sible reason  given,  if  any  reason  was  necessary, 
was  that  the  Jews  through  their  dealings  in  liquor, 


*  See  "Max  Lilienthal,  American  Rabbi,  Life  and  Writings,"  by 
David  Philipson,  New  York,  1915. 


RUSSIA  IOS 

had  been  the  cause  of  increasing  drunkenness 
among  the  peasantry,  and  that  by  lending  out 
money  on  usury  they  had  brought  about  the  lat- 
ter's  economic  ruin.  To  be  sure,  the  expulsion  of 
the  Jews  from  the  villages  did  not  make  the  peas- 
ants drink  any  the  less,  nor  did  it  improve  their 
financial  condition.  The  liquor  trade  did  not  di- 
minish by  passing  into  the  hands  of  Christians, 
and  the  Christian  money-lender  proved  more 
grasping  and  rapacious  than  the  Jew  ever  dared 
to  be.  Nicholas,  however,  was  more  concerned  in 
the  ruination  of  the  Jews  than  in  the  improve- 
ment of  the  lot  of  his  Christian  subjects.  The 
expulsions  continued  with  ruthless  severity.  And 
to  add  to  the  haplessness  of  their  lot,  a  scheme 
was  devised  whereby  the  Jew  was  to  be  branded 
not  merely  as  the  stepchild  and  outcast  of  the 
Russian  nation  but  as  its  one  source  of  danger 
in  the  most  vital  concern  of  the  country,  its  safety 
against  a  foreign  enemy.  The  Jews  were  namely 
accused  as  the  one  element  in  Russia  that  could 
not  be  relied  upon  in  case  of  war.  Accordingly, 
in  1843,  the  order  was  promulgated  forbidding 
Jews  to  remain  within  fifty  versts  (about  thirty- 
four  miles)  of  the  Prussian  and  Austrian  fron- 
tiers, the  immediate  pretext  being  that  they  were 
carrying  on  a  contraband  trade  with  the  Germans 
and  Austrians.  The  pleadings  of  the  Jews  that 
they  were  entirely  innocent  of  the  accusation, 
added  to  the  petitions"  of  their  Christian  neigh- 
bors and  the  protest  of  the  Czar's  own  Ministers 
who  pointed  out  that  the  enforcement  of  the  order 
would  involve  an  annual  loss  in  customs  duties  of 
a  million  four  hundred  and  sixty  thousand  rou- 
bles, were  unavailing.  The  Jews  had  to  go,  and 
fully  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  souls  in  the 
affected  zones  were  thrown  out  of  their  homes 
and  made  to  swell  the  already  dense  city  popula- 


IO6  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

tions.  Th«  cry  of  despair  which  arose  from  the 
wretched  refugees  as  they  were  made  to  wander 
over  the  face  of  the  earth  in  quest  of  shelter, 
stripped  of  their  earthly  possessions,  with  their 
old  people  and  little  children  dying  from  expos- 
ure and  starvation,  reached  across  the  boundary 
and  raised  a  storm  of  indignation  throughout  civ- 
ilized Europe.  In  vain  were  mass  meetings  held, 
resolutions  adopted,  petitions  forwarded;  in  vain 
did  the  leading  Jews  of  France,  Germany  and 
England  intercede  in  behalf  of  their  unfortunate 
brethren ;  in  vain  did  Moses  Montefiore  go  to  Rus- 
sia (1846)  to  plead  with  the  autocrat  the  cause 
of  his  co-religionists.  Nicholas  remained  un- 
moved, the  agitation  of  Western  Europe,  if  any- 
thing, only  confirming  him  in  his  resolve  to  deal 
with  his  Jewish  sla.ves  at  his  own  pleasure. 

The  one  seemingly  bright  episode  in  the  history 
of  the  Russian  Jews  under  Nicholas  which  buoyed 
up  the  drooping  spirits  of  the  people  for  a  time 
at  least,  was  the  attempt  at  colonization  in  South- 
ern Russia  and  Siberia.  The  idea  of  Jewish  col- 
onization had  originated  with  Alexander  I  who, 
acting  upon  the  suggestion  of  the  poet  Derzhavin, 
himself  an  enemy  of  the  Jewish  race,  that  such 
colonies  be  formed  "to  check  the  selfish  occupa- 
tions of  the  Jews"  in  White  Russia,  in  1802  ap- 
pointed a  special  commission  to  which  Jewish  del- 
egates were  invited.  As  a  result  of  its  two  years' 
labor  a  colonization  programme  was  drawn  up  by 
which  the  government  undertook  to  aid  Jewish 
agriculturists  to  acquire  land  and  implements  upon 
the  payment  of  four  hundred  roubles  per  family. 
The  Jewish  settlements,  however,  were  to  be  sep- 
arated from  those  of  the  Christians,  and  Jews 
could  not  purchase  land  in  a  Christian  colony. 
Following  the  adoption  of  this  programme  four 
colonies  were  established  (1807)  in  the  govern- 


RUSSIA  IO7 

ment  of  Kherson,  by  Jews  of  Vitebsk  and  Mohi- 
lev.  But  it  was  soon  discovered  that  the  land  thus 
acquired  was  best  suited  for  cattle  raising  and  for 
agriculture  on  a  large  scale,  rather  than  for  small 
farming  such  as  these  colonists  could  carry  on 
with  their  limited  resources.  There  was  a  dearth 
of  provisions  and  housing  accommodations,  and 
the  climatic  conditions  of  those  regions  brought 
sickness  and  death  to  many  of  the  settlers.  Of 
the  ten  thousand  would-be  colonists,  great  num- 
bers were  compelled  to  return  to  White  Russia, 
and  a  stop  was  put  to  the  entire  scheme  by  the 
ukase  of  April  6,  1810. 

Nicholas  now  determined  upon  a  renewal  of  the 
scheme,  not  indeed  from  a  desire  to  favor  the 
Jews  but  as  part  of  the  programme  for  their  ab- 
sorption in  the  Christian  Church.  The  removal 
of  many  thousands  of  them  to  distant  parts  of 
Russia  with  the  financial  aid  of  the  government, 
and  under  its  protection,  ought  surely  to  create  a 
sentiment  among  them  more  favorable  to  the 
Czar's  plans  for  their  religious  salvation.  Such 
is  the  only  motive  ascribable  for  this  ostensibly 
merciful  scheme  of  the  ruler  who  on  all  other  oc- 
casions showed  himself  in  the  role  of  a  blood- 
thirsty tyrant.  An  elaborate  plan  was  adopted  in 
1835  f°r  an  extensive  Jewish  colonization  in  New 
Russia.  Colonies  were  to  consist  each  of  a  min- 
imum of  forty  persons  and  permission  was  grant- 
ed all  such  would-be  farmers  to  buy  or  rent  land 
from  Christians  or  from  the  Crown.  They  were 
also  to  be  freed  from  certain  taxes,  and  were,  be- 
sides, to  have  the  right  of  sending  their  children 
to  the  government  schools,  academies  and  univer- 
sities. The  Jews,  however,  remained  indifferent 
to  the  plan,  probably  remembering  the  disastrous 
results  of  the  colonization  scheme  of  Alexander  I. 
Nicholas  then  decided  to  try  the  experiment  in 


IO8  HISTORY    OF   THE   JEWS 

distant  Siberia  and,  in  the  following  year  (1836), 
assigned  for  this  purpose  15,141  dessiatines  of 
land  in  the  Governments  of  Tobolsk  and  Omsk. 
By  this  time  the  Russian  Jews  had  experienced  a 
change  of  feeling  toward  the  plan.  Siberian  col- 
onization meant  removal  from  their  present 
crowded  surroundings  and  the  ever  menacing 
proximity  of  their  unfriendly  Christian  neighbors. 
It  meant  a  new  life  under  conditions  making  for 
physical  well-being  in  the  free  atmosphere  of 
those  boundless  Asiatic  steppes.  Spurred  on  by 
the  enthusiastic  approval  of  some  of  their  intel- 
lectual leaders  like  Isaac  Baer  Levinsohn  and  B. 
Mandelstamm,  and  the  encouragement  of  the 
Christian  populace,  many  thousands  of  them  made 
ready  to  join  in  the  new  exodus.  From  Courland 
Elias  Mitauer  and  Meyer  Mendelssohn  headed  a 
group  of  three  hundred  and  fifty  persons  as  the 
pioneers  of  the  movement,  to  be  followed  soon  by 
an  army  of  about  five  thousand  more.  Count 
Kankrin,  the  Czar's  Minister,  who  was  charged 
with  the  execution  of  the  enterprise,  received  the 
approval  of  the  emperor  in  all  of  his  plans.  But 
just  as  the  thousands  of  would-be  agriculturists 
were  on  their  way  to  the  New  Canaan  Nicholas's 
mind  was  changed.  "The  abode  of  the  criminals 
was  thought  too  good  for  the  Jews."  On  January 
5,  1837,  the  autocrat  ordered  "the  transfer  of 
Jews  to  Siberia  to  be  stopped,"  and  at  once  the 
Minister  of  the  Interior,  Count  Bludov,  sent  word 
to  all  the  Governors  and  Governors-General  of 
Siberia  to  seize  the  travellers  wherever  they  might 
be  found  and  send  them  under  military  convoy  to 
Kherson.  In  true  Muscovite  fashion  these  hun- 
dreds of  families  were  dragged  on  foot  across  the 
Siberian  deserts,  the  knout  ever  ready  to  descend 
upon  their  fatigued  bodies.  Famished  and  at- 
tacked by  disease,  many  of  them  succumbed  to  the 


RUSSIA  IO9 

hardships  of  the  journey,  and  those  who  did  final- 
ly arrive  in  Kherson  were  so  worn  out  physically 
as  to  be  unable  for  some  time  to  take  up  any  kind 
of  manual  work.     There  they  languished   for  a 
long  time  awaiting  their  further  disposal  at  the 
hands  of  the  government,  in  the  meantime  falling 
a  burden  upon  the  local  inhabitants.     Not  until 
1840  was  a  final  arrangement  made  to  remove  the 
unfortunates  to  several  colonies  within  the  prov- 
ince.    But  there  their  real  misery  was  first  to  be- 
gin.     Says    Harold   Frederic  in  his   book,    "The 
New  Exodus":    "The  story  of  these  [colonizing] 
attempts  is  one  of  the  most  melancholy  in  the 
whole  unhappy  record  of  the  race — at  once  melan- 
choly and  grimly  grotesque.   .    .    .   Great  colonies 
of  Jews,  sometimes  numbering  hundreds  of  fam- 
ilies, were  now  gathered  up  promiscuously,  trans- 
ported across  to  the  desolate  prairie  lands  of  Nov- 
orossiysk  (New  Russia),  and  dumped  down  upon 
the   unbroken   soil   to   thrive  by  agriculture.      In 
any    case    the    experiment    could    have    promised 
scant   success.     As   it   was   managed,   it   became 
simply  murderous.     A  staff  of  officials,  almost  as 
numerous   as   the   colonists   themselves,   was    ap- 
pointed to  control  things.     Each  family  was  sup- 
posed to  be  granted  one  hundred  and  fifty  rou- 
bles, but  of  this  the  officials  gave  the  family  only 
thirty.     The  rest  purported  to  have  been  expend- 
ed   in    buying    land,    farm    machinery,    building 
houses,   etc.      But   seven-eights   of  it   was   really 
stolen,  and  such  colonists  as  did  not  die  on  the 
road    found  only  groups   of  shanties  not  fit   for 
pigs,  and  implements  which  broke  in  their  hands. 
Here,   under  the  control  of  brutal  officials  who 
knouted  the  incapable  and  could  not  advise  or  in- 
struct the  industrious,  these  unhappy  town  Jews 
died  of  epidemics  or  starvation.     The  chief  dig- 
ging they  did  was  digging  of  graves." 


HO  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

The  magnitude  of  this  scheme  may  be  judged 
from  the  fact  that,  despite  the  failures  which  at- 
tended the  experiment,  the  expulsions,  deaths  and 
desertions  of  many  of  the  colonists,  there  were  in 
1845  no  IGSS  than  fifteen  colonies  in  the  govern- 
ment of  Kherson,  containing  more  than  twelve 
thousand  persons.  The  colonies  founded  in  the 
Yekaterinoslav  government  fared  little  better.  In 
his  report  to  the  Czar  in  1847,  Baron  Stempel,  the 
superintendent  of  those  colonies,  stated  that  on 
their  arrival  in  Yekaterinoslav  the  colonists  found 
that  no  provision  had  been  made  for  their  hous- 
ing, the  few  old  houses  being  altogether  inade- 
quate for  their  number  and,  besides,  unfit  to  live 
in.  They  were  not  allowed  to  repair  these  build- 
ings, or  to  seek  shelter  in  the  neighboring  vil- 
lages until  the  Spring,  as  Stempel  had  suggested, 
the  Cossacks  driving  back  all  those  who  attempted 
to  do  so.  Nevertheless,  even  there  the  colonies 
began  to  thrive  after  a  while,  fifteen  of  them  hav- 
ing been  founded  by  1856,  with  a  population  of 
766  families.  Since  then  the  number  of  such  set- 
tlements has  greatly  increased,  though  it  had  to 
be  done  largely  through  private  initiative  rather 
than  by  government  aid  or  encouragement,  and 
many  of  them  were  founded  in  Western  Russia, 
in  the  very  "Pale  of  Settlement,"  there  being  in 
1870  no  less  than  216  of  them  with  a  population 
of  34,475  and  a  stretch  of  land  covering  91,398 
acres.  Despite  untold  hardships  and  innumerable 
drawbacks,  ukases  and  pogroms  and  the  operation 
of  the  May-laws  of  1882  which  hindered  the  prog- 
ress of  Jewish  colonization  considerably,  there 
were  in  Russia,  in  1900,  fully  one  hundred  thou- 
sand Jewish  agriculturists,  scattered  within  170 
colonies,  besides  many  small  farmers,  many  of 
them  even  tilling  the  soil  of  the  Christian  land- 
holders. No  better  argument  than  this  is  needed 


RUSSIA  III 

to  disprove  the  oft-repeated  accusation  that  the 
Russian  Jew  is  averse  to  manual  labor  and  par- 
ticularly to  farm  work. 

In  the  meantime  the  expulsion  of  Jews  went  on 
relentlessly,  and  what  was  adopted  as  the  standing 
policy  of  the  government  became  the  pastime  and 
the  perennial  source  of  blackmail  and  extortion  of 
the  chinovniki  or  lower  Russian  officialdom. 
Driven  from  the  villages  into  the  cities,  Nicholas 
yet  decided  that  even  the  cities  of  the  "Pale"  were 
too  good  for  the  Jews,  and  accordingly  went  on 
with  a  plan,  to  himself  unclear  and  uncertain,  of 
keeping  them  out  of  certain  great  and  important 
centres  while  permitting  their  stay  in  others. 
They  were  thus  expelled  from  Kiev  in  1827,  from 
Nikolayev  and  Sevastopol  in  1829,  from  Trok, 
Vilna  (at  the  instigation  of  Karaites)  in  1830, 
and  in  1845  from  Knyshin  at  the  instance  of  the 
Christian  guilds  of  the  place.  In  nearly  every  in- 
stance such  expulsions  took  place  against  the  bet- 
ter judgment  of  the  Czar's  advisers  and  to  the 
certain  injury  of  the  town  thus  affected.  Nicho- 
las, however,  was  mainly  interested  in  making  the 
life  of  the  Jews  so  miserable,  and  their  economic 
position  so  untenable,  as  to  force  them  to  take 
refuge  in  baptism.  Little  did  the  despot  realize 
that  where  Torquemada  and  the  powerful  Span- 
ish Inquisition  failed  he  could  never  hope  to  suc- 
ceed. Just  when  their  physical  life  was  passing 
through  its  darkest  hours,  the  lamp  of  their  spir- 
itual life  was  burning  brightest,  a  sublime  mock- 
ery at  the  futility  of  human  vanity  and  arrogance. 

The  Czar,  however,  persisted  in  his  course  and 
failing  in  one  plan  his  fertile  brain  was  quick  to 
decide  upon  another.  What  was  probably  the 
most  ingenious  and  ambitious,  though  at  the  same 
time  the  most  hopeless  of  his  anti-Jewish  activi- 
ties, was  his  programme  for  the  secularization  of 


112  HISTORY    OF   THE   JEWS 

Jewish  education.  Russian  Jewry,  then  as  now, 
was  the  most  cultured  element  in  the  empire,  their 
intellectual  acumen  and  firm  ethical  character  be- 
ing the  result  of  generations  of  mental  and  spir- 
itual cultivation.  True,  their  education  was  large- 
ly Talmudic  and  religious,  the  Heder  (Hebrew 
School)  and  Yeshibah  (rabbinical  college)  being 
the  only  mediums  of  instruction,  yet  compared 
with  the  millions  of  totally  ignorant  peasants 
within  the  empire  the  Jews  were  a  delightful  ex- 
ception, few  of  them  being  so  illiterate  as  to  be 
unable  to  read  or  even  write  Hebrew  or  at  least 
the  Judaeo-German  dialect,  and  some  of  them 
were  acquiring  great  proficiency  in  the  Russian, 
Polish  and  German  languages  and  literatures. 
The  Mendelssohnian  Aiifklaerung  movement, 
known  as  Haskalah,  which  will  be  discussed  here 
at  greater  length,  had  found  its  way  into  Russia 
and  dazzled  the  eyes  of  many  aspirants  to  higher 
education  who  saw  in  German  culture  and  Ger- 
man ideals,  as  illustrated  in  the  works  of  Goethe, 
Schiller  and  Lessing,  the  finest  expression  of  an 
age  noted  for  its  rationalism  and  romanticism.  The 
great  mass  of  Russian  Jewry,  however,  was  de- 
void of  all  secular  learning,  steeped  in  fanaticism 
and  given  to  superstitious  practices.  Their  He- 
brew schools  persisted  in  the  educational  methods 
that  had  been  in  vogue  in  Poland  for  many  gen- 
erations, and  while  they  satisfied  the  masses  \vho 
knew  no  better,  and  the  rabbis  who  were  on  prin- 
ciple opposed  to  all  innovations,  they  were  a  thorn 
in  the  flesh  of  many  of  the  aufgeklaerte  or  en- 
lightened ones  who  saw  the  salvation  of  the  Jew 
and  his  eventual  emancipation  only  in  a  Euro- 
pean education.  Their  hopes  found  expression  in 
the  agitation  for  school-reforms  carried  on  by  Dr. 
Frank  as  early  as  1800,  and  by  Isaac  Baer  Levin- 
sohn  who  in  1823,  in  his  German  letter  to  Grand 


RUSSIA  113 

Duke  Constantine,  and  in  his  Hebrew  work 
"Teudah  be-Yisrael"  (published  in  Vilna  in  1828), 
urged  the  advisability  of  founding  schools  where 
besides  Hebrew  and  Talmud  the  Jewish  youth 
might  also  be  instructed  in  the  Russian  and  other 
languages,  taught  a  trade  and  preferably  agricul- 
ture. This  book  was  received  with  great  enthusi- 
asm by  the  Jews  of  Western  Russia  where,  espe- 
cially in  Vilna,  it  found  a  ready  sale,  and  under 
its  influence  many  young  Jews  took  up  the  study 
of  Hebrew  grammar  which  until  then  had  been 
neglected  in  Russia,  as  well  as  modern  languages 
and  the  sciences.  On  the  other  hand  the  book  en- 
raged the  ultra-religious  among  both  the  Rab- 
binites  of  Lithuania  and  the  Hassidim  in  South- 
Russia  who  frowned  upon  Levinsohn  as  an  athe- 
ist and  declared  his  book  as  a  danger  to  the  re- 
ligious interests  of  the  Jews. 

Nicholas  perceived  in  this  situation  an  oppor- 
tunity for  the  furtherance  of  his  own  plans.  He1 
had  reached  the  conclusion  that  the  main  stum- 
bling-block to  the  complete  Russification  of  the 
Jews  and  their  Christianization  lay  in  the  hold 
the  Talmud  had  on  them,  and  the  Talmud  was  to 
the  ignorant  Czar  the  embodiment  of  all  those 
iniquitous  doctrines  and  evil  practices  which  he 
believed  obtained  among  the  Jews.  An  entire 
literature  had  by  this  time  been  produced  in  Rus- 
sia to  prove  the  corrupting  influence  of  Talmud- 
ical  Judaism  and  its  menace  to  the  welfare  of  the 
land.  The  Jew-hating  writers  ascribed  to  the  Jews 
beliefs  and  customs  that  had  never  existed,  some 
of  them  even  going  so  far  as  to  state  in  their 
ignorance  that  the  Tephilin  and  Zisit  were  a 
sort  of  dish  very  delectable  among  the  Jews.  In 
1830  appeared  Bishop  Chiarini's  French  work 
"La  Theorie  du  Judaisme,"  in  which  he  attacked 
the  Talmud  as  a  work  of  fanatical  and  immoral 


114  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

teachings,  which  sanctions  wrong-doing  against 
Christians  and  the  use  of  Christian  blood  for  the 
Passover.  For  this  he  was  rewarded  by  the  Czar 
with  a  substantial  sum  of  money.  A  Jewish  con- 
vert of  Vitebsk,  Asher  Temkin,  published  in  1833 
a  Hebrew  work  "Derek  Selulah"  (The  Paved 
Road)  in  which  the  Talmud  is  likewise  grossly 
abused,  and  by  order  of  the  Czar  it  was  trans- 
lated into  Russian  and  distributed  among  the  Rus- 
sian clergy.  Again,  in  1837,  Alexander  McCaul 
of  London  began  the  publication  of  his  "Old 
Paths"  with  its  bitter  denunciations  and  falsifi- 
cations of  the  Talmud,  which  was  soon  translated 
into  German  and  was  circulated  in  Russia.  To 
exterminate  the  evil  at  its  base  seemed  to  Nicho- 
las the  only  logical  step:  to  diminsh,  as  much  as 
possible,  the  study  of  the  Talmud  among  the 
Jews  and,  better  still,  to  exterminate  the  Talmud 
itself,  and  prevent  its  circulation.  A  censorship 
was  set  up  (1836)  composed  of  the  Crown-rab- 
bis *  who  were  to  examine  every  section  of  the 
Talmud  and  strike  out  all  objectionable  and  suspi- 
cious matter,  thus  crippling  its  usefulness.  Other 
ancient  works  of  the  Talmudic  literature  were 
subjected  to  a  like  treatment,  and  many  of  them 
were  annihilated  by  fire.  At  the  same  time  the 
government  ordered  the  closing  of  nearly  all  the 
Hebrew  printing  establishments,  more  than  twenty 
of  them  being  thus  abolished  with  the  exception 
of  three,  namely  those  in  Warsaw,  Vilna  and 
Zhitomir. 

Levinsohn's  plea  for  school-reforms  in  his 
"Teudah  be-Yisrael"  was  thoroughly  appreciated 
by  the  Czar  as  being  in  line  with  his  own  plans, 


*  The  rabbis  appointed  by  the  government,  or  elected  by  the 
people,  to  attend  to  purely  governmental  affairs,  such  as  the  regis- 
tration of  births  and  deaths  among  the  Jews,  etc. 


RUSSIA  115 

and  he  rewarded  him  with  a  gift  of  one  thousand 
roubles.  The  idea  of  having  separate  schools  for 
the  Jews,  under  the  supervision  of  Christians, 
where  a  Christological  influence  could  be  exerted 
over  the  tender  youths,  received  his  hearty  appro- 
bation. He  who  looked  upon  all  education  for  his 
Christian  subjects  as  a  danger  to  the  State  and 
who  did  his  best  to  make  illiteracy  the  outstand- 
ing feature  of  his  empire,  by  limiting  the  educa- 
tional facilities  of  the  country,  assuredly  would 
not  have  approved  of  an  extensive  school  system 
for  the  much-hated  Jews  except  as  a  useful  in- 
strument for  their  ultimate  conversion.  Before 
long  an  occasion  arose  which  convinced  him  that 
the  Jews  were  themselves  ready  for  such  educa- 
tional reforms.  The  Jewish  community  of  Riga 
had  petitioned  Count  Uvarov,  the  Minister  of  Ed- 
ucation when  the  latter  passed  through  their  city 
in  1838,  for  permission  to  open  a  modern  school 
for  boys  and  girls  in  which,  besides  Jewish  his- 
tory, the  Bible  and  Hebrew,  instruction  shall  also 
be  given,  under  the  direction  of  a  Christian  ped- 
agogue, in  the  Russian  language.  This  unusual 
programme  for  a  Hebrew  school  so  impressed  it- 
self upon  the  Minister  that  he  consented  to  place 
the  matter  before  the  Czar,  and  the  latter  saw  in 
this  the  long  looked-for  opportunity.  The  above- 
mentioned  Dr.  Max  Lilienthal  of  Munich,  a 
young  man  of  but  23  years  of  age,  had  been 
elected  as  the  principal  of  the  school,  and  he  fa- 
vorably impressed  Uvarov  on  whom  he  called 
when  passing  through  St.  Petersburg  (1839)  on 
his  way  to  Riga.  When  the  school  was  dedicated 
in  the  following  year,  Lilienthal's  German  ad- 
dress, which  was  printed  in  pamphlet  form, 
pleased  the  Czar  so  greatly  that  he  presented  him 
with  a  precious  diamond  ring.  It  was  this  same 
Lilienthal  on  whom  the  Czar's  choice  fell  as  the 


Il6  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

tool  for  the  carrying  out  of  his  designs  upon  the 
Jews. 

The  plan  was  to  have  hundreds  of  schools,  ele- 
mentary and  high,  opened  throughout  the  "Pale." 
That  the  government's  true  motive  was  anything 
but  the  real  welfare  of  the  Jews  can  be  seen  from 
the  report  presented  by  Uvarov  to  the  emperor  in 

1841,  bearing  on   the   "Commission    for   Finding 
Ways  and  Means  for  the  Radical  Transformation 
of  the  Jews  of  Russia"  which  had  met  by  order  of 
the  Czar  toward  the  end  of  1840.    In  it  the  Min- 
ister plainly  stated  that  the  real  and  secret  inten- 
tion of  the  government  in  its  educational  plans 
was  to  weaken  the  influence  of  the  Talmud,  the 
cause  of  the  fanaticism  and  corrupt  morals  of  the 
Jews,  and  to  bring  the  Jews  closer  to  the  Russian 
people  and  the  Greek  Church."     Lilienthal,  to  be 
sure,  little  suspected  the  true  intentions  of  the  gov- 
ernment. 

He  was  himself  convinced  of  the  need  of 
the  proposed  school  reforms,  was  confident  that 
these  reforms,  if  carried  through,  would  lead  to 
the  ultimate  emancipation  of  his  brethren,  and  was 
happy  at  the  thought  that  he  had  been  found 
worthy  to  be  the  chosen  instrument  of  so  impor- 
tant and  historic  an  occasion.  Greatly  encour- 
aged by  Count  Uvarov,  and  finding  himself  even 
more  so  by  a  number  of  the  Maskilim  like  Nissen 
Rosenthal  of  Vilna  and  Benjamin  Mandelstamm 
of  Odessa,  Lilienthal,  the  cultured  German  Jew, 
found  it  hard  to  believe  that  the  bulk  of  Russian 
Jewry  would  reject  a  plan  by  which  they  were  to 
benefit  so  greatly  and  which,  even  at  its  worst,  as 
he  saw  it,  could  result  in  but  scant  injury  to  their 
spiritual  interests.  On  his  arrival  in  Vilna,  in 

1842,  he  was  enthusiastically  received  by  the  lead- 
ers and  the  masses  of  the  community,  his  proposal 


DR.  MAX  LILIENTHAL 
(1815-1882) 


RUSSIA 

was  listened  to  with  great  deference,  and  upon 
his  solemn  assurance  that  he  would  abandon  his 
office  the  moment  he  was  convinced  that  the  gov- 
ernment's intentions  were  to  undermine  the  faith 
of  the  Jews,  won  them  over  completely.  It,  how- 
ever, took  Lilienthal  three  more  years  before  he 
could  apprehend  the  real  motive  of  the  govern- 
ment. When  the  truth  finally  dawned  on  him, 
when  the  shameful  proposition  of  conversion  \vas 
even  broached  to  him  personally,  he,  true  to  his 
word,  left  his  post  and  shook  the  dust  of  bloody 
Russia  from  his  feet  (1845)  to  nnd  in  the  United 
States  a  place  of  honor  and  distinction  as  one  of 
the  foremost  pioneers  of  Reform  Judaism  in 
America. 

His  Vilna  triumph  was  short-lived  and  soon 
Lilienthal  was  to  come  face  to  face  with  the  bitter 
reality  that,  aside  from  the  few  overly-enthusi- 
astic and  impracticable  Maskilim,  the  millions  of 
Russian  Je\vs  were  averse  to  having  the  govern- 
ment interfere  with  their  inner  and  spiritual  ef- 
forts by  foisting  upon  them  its  educational  meas- 
ures. The  soul  of  Russian  Jewry  sensed  the  dan- 
ger lurking  in  the  imperial  scheme.  They  clearly 
perceived  that  education  without  emancipation 
ivould  lead  to  apostasy.  As  long  as  the  Jew  was 
discriminated  against,  excluded  from  the  profes- 
sions, barred  from  the  villages,  shut  out  from  the 
interior  cities,  forbidden  to  move  about  at  will, 
overloaded  with  extra  duties  and  burdens  and  de- 
prived even  of  the  least  of  privileges  enjoyed  by 
the  meanest  of  moujiks — of  what  avail  could  be 
to  him  a  liberal  education,  the  possession  of  the 
knowledge  of  the  good  things  of  life  without  the 
ability  to  reach  out  for  them?  In  their  situation 
ignorance  alone  was  bliss.  Enlightenment  with- 
out equality  would  make  for  despair  and  inevi- 


Il8  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

tably  lead  to  baptism.*  Like  true  men  they 
spurned  the  gift  and  retained  their  self-respect. 
And  since  Lilienthal  was  in  the  service  of  the  em- 
peror, and  close  to  the  government,  he  was  to 
them  the  personification  of  all  the  malice,  hatred 
and  hypocrisy  they  knew  the  Russian  regime  to 
stand  for.  Moreover,  as  a  Jew  himself,  and  en- 
gaged in  a  nefarious  scheme  for  their  dejudaiza- 
tion,  he  was  in  their  eyes  a  traitor  and  informer, 
an  object  of  loathing  and  summary  revenge.  Lil- 
ienthal realized  this  as  soon  as  he  arrived  in 
Minsk.  Unlike  Vilna,  no  demonstrations  greeted 
him  on  his  arrival  and  no  deputations  came  to  see 
him.  At  the  meeting  which  he  succeeded  in  hold- 
ing after  considerable  difficulty,  he  was  hooted 
and  jeered  at  and  called  Okher  Y Israel  (trou- 
bler  of  Israel,  or  traitor).  On  his  way  from  the 
meeting  place  stones  \vere  thrown  at  him,  and 
murderous  threats  were  openly  made  to  him.  The 
authorities  had  to  intervene  and  many  of  his  as- 
sailants were  jailed.  The  failure  of  his  Minsk 
mission  immediately  reacted  upon  Vilna,  too, 


*  That  Lilienthal  was  himself  not  unconscious  of  the  truth  upon 
which  these  sentiments  were  based,  can  be  gleaned  from  his  fine 
plea  to  Count  Uvaroy  as  reproduced  in  his  highly  interesting  book, 
"My  Travels  in  Russia."  (See  Philipson,  "Max  Lilienthal,  American 
Rabbi,  Life  and  Writings,"  New  York,  1915,  pp.  196-197)  :  "Every 
obstacle  will  be  overcome  readily  if  His  Majesty  will  grant  the  Jews 
at  once  full  and  complete  emancipation.  This  is  the  only  solution 
of  the  riddle  that  puzzles  so  many  eminent  statesmen.  .  .  .  There 
is  no  reproach  whatever  to  be  made  to  the  Jews,  but  now  the  gov- 
ernment assumes  the  title  of  a  'Christian  State',  and  all  the  exer- 
tions made  by  the  Jews  have  proved  abortive  and  discouraged  a 
great  many  parents  from  sending  their  children  to  universities, 
this  being  the  sure  path  towards  future  apostasy.  Let  the  emperor 
at  once  proclaim  the  emancipation  of  the  Jews,  and  let  him  then 
issue  any  ukase  whatever  to  begin  the  work  of  Jewish  Reform  in 
earnest,  to  cut  short  the  exclusive  study  of  the  Talmud,  and  al- 
though totally  unacquainted  with  the  character  of  the  Russian 
Jews,  I  dare  to  avouch  that  in  ten  years  hence  they  will  surpass 
the  most  sanguine  expectations  of  the  imperial  government."  See 
also  Lilienthal's  statement  in  his  article  in  "Asmonean,"  X.  100,  also 
quoted  by  Philipson  (Ibid.  p.  58), 


RUSSIA 

where  a  crowd  of  thousands  of  infuriated  fanatics 
crowded  into  the  court  of  the  synagogue  where  a 
meeting  was  to  be  held.  Bloodshed  was  prevented 
only  by  the  arrest  of  the  P amass  (president)  and 
the  dispersion  of  the  mob  by  the  fire  companies 
who,  at  the  order  of  the  chief  of  police,  turned 
the  water  hoses  of  their  engines  upon  the  crowd. 
It  was  evident  that,  whatever  favorable  turns  his 
future  propaganda  in  the  "Pale"  might  take,  the 
plan,  as  a  whole,  was  doomed  to  failure.  Nor  can 
it  be  denied  that  Lilienthal  himself  was  largely  re- 
sponsible for  the  ill-success  of  his  mission.  Try- 
ing to  please  all  parties,  he  only  succeeded  in  of- 
fending them  all.  His  ostentatious  piety  when 
among  the  orthodox  exposed  him,  a  smooth-shaven 
German-speaking  Jew,  to  the  charge  of  hypocrisy, 
while  his  too  great  attention  to  the  rich  Jews  and 
his  neglect  of  the  poor  Maskilim  alienated  the  only 
party  in  Russia  which  was  entirely  in  sympathy 
with  his  views  and  plans,  and  from  which  alone 
he  could  expect  valuable  services.  Even  Benjamin 
Mandelstamm,  his  greatest  admirer  at  first,  later 
turned  from  him  in  disgust,  while  the  noted  He- 
braist, Mordecai  Aaron  Guenzburg,  who  at  one 
time  stood  close  to  him,  went  so  far  as  to  merci- 
lessly attack  him  in  a  Hebrew  pamphlet,  "Maggid 
Emet"  (Speaker  of  Truth),  which  appeared  in 
Leipzig  in  1843.  The  booklet  is  important  in  that 
it  indicates  the  real  cause  of  the  diffidence  with 
which  his  mission  was  met:  the  departure  of  the 
halo  which  the  intellectual  Russian  Jew  had  been 
wont  to  place  around  the  educated  German  Jew. 
In  Lilienthal  they  expected  to  find  a  paragon  of 
both  Germanic  culture  and  Hebraic  learning,  yet 
on  coming  in  close  touch  with  him  they  failed  to 
discover  the  signs  of  greatness  they  were  inclined 
to  look  for  in  a  graduate  from  a  German  uni- 
versity, at  the  same  time  perceiving  his  in- 


I2O  UlStOKY    1)1?    THE    JEWS 

adequacy  as  a  Jewish  preacher  and,  what  to  them 
was  most  important  of  all,  his  insufficiency  as  a 
Hebrew  scholar.  The  former  disappointed  them, 
the  latter  repelled  them.  Henceforth  the  German- 
Jewish  rabbi  and  scholar  could  meet  with  but 
scanty  recognition  in  Russia. 

On  the  other  hand,  even  had  Lilienthal  suc- 
ceeded among-  the  Jews,  he  doubtless  would  have 
met  with  his  greatest  obstacle — from  the  Russian 
government  itself.  For  to  make  possible  the  real- 
ization of  his  plan  it  was  necessary  to  import  sev- 
eral hundred  capable  Jewish  pedagogues  from  Ger- 
many, since  no  such  voluminous  teaching  material 
was  at  that  time  to  be  had  in  Russia,  and,  in- 
deed, Lilienthalhad  already  received  hundreds  of 
applications  from  men  in  Germany  who  were 
anxious  to  come  to  Russia.  But  here  the  govern- 
ment began  to  frown  upon  the  entire  scheme. 
Nicholas,  who  hated  all  things  Western,  began  to 
fear  that  the  influx  into  Russia  of  a  small  army 
of  German  Jewish  pedagogues  would  result  in  the 
spread  of  Western,  and  mayhap,  revolutionary 
ideas  among  his  subjects — something  which  he 
would  under  no  circumstances  permit.  He  there- 
fore decided  to  circumvent  this  plan  and  to  exe- 
cute it  instead  in  a  way  all  his  own.  And  now 
began  the  enforced  "education"  of  the  Russian 
Jew  which  constitutes  one  of  the  darkest  periods 
in  the  history  of  that  long-suffering  people.  By  a 
decree  issued  in  1844,  the  Czar  ordered  the  estab- 
lishment of  elementary  schools  in  all  the  cities  of 
the  "Pale"  and  of  two  rabbinical  seminaries  in 
the  cities  of  Vilna  and  Zhitomir.  In  these  lower 
schools,  of  which  about  two  thousand  were 
founded,  the  instruction  of  the  Talmud  was  nom- 
inally on  the  programme,  but  wras  in  reality  a 
mere  bait  for  the  unwary.  Christian  principals 
and  Christian  teachers  were  in  charge  of  most  of 


RUSSIA  121 

the  instruction,  endeavoring  with  might  and  main 
to  create  an  anti-Jewish  and  pro-Christian  at- 
mosphere. Jews  were  employed  to  teach  Hebrew 
only,  but  their  position  was  precarious  and  their 
pay  niggardly.  Since  the  Jews  would  not  will- 
ingly send  their  children  to  these  schools,  the 
authorities  had  to  resort  to  force,  and  there  arose 
a  struggle  between  the  government  and  a  people 
whom  hundreds  of  years  of  oppression  had  made 
cunning  and  adepts  in  the  art  of  evading  an  in- 
tolerant law.  Children  were  dragged  from  their 
homes  and  driven  to  the  schools  by  the  police  offi- 
cers; substitution  was  therefore  practiced,  bribery 
was  resorted  to,  and  thousands  of  pupils  were  en- 
rolled who  never  saw  the  inside  of  the  government 
school.  Again  brother  was  set  against  brother  in 
Israel,  the  poor  and  orphaned  being  made  to  take 
the  place  of  the  children  of  the  rich.  Bitterness 
and  distrust,  rather  than  gratitude,  was  the  result- 
ant sentiment  toward  the  government.  As  for  the 
rabbinical  seminaries  their  failure  became  mani- 
fest from  the  very  start  by  their  management, 
their  methods  and  scope  of  instruction  and,  above 
all,  the  arrogant  and  decidedly  un-Jewish  attitude 
of  teachers  and  students  alike.  An  apostate  Jew 
was  made  head  of  the  Vilna  seminary — the  insti- 
tution which  was  to  send  forth  religious  leaders 
in  Israel,  while  many  of  the  teachers  in  both 
schools  were  coarse  and  uneducated  Christians. 
Since  no  congregation  would  employ  "rabbis" 
trained  in  this  fashion,  the  graduates  of  these 
seminaries  had  to  look  to  the  government  for  sup- 
port and  employment,  and  not  a  few  of  them  con- 
verted to  Christianity.  What  Nicholas  and 
Uvarov  believed  to  be  an  act  of  royal  grace  to 
the  lowly  and  benighted  Jews,  was  turned  into 
gall  and  wormwood.  And  to  add  to  the  hollow- 
ness  of  this  mockery,  the  Jews  themselves  had  to 


122  HISTORY    OF    THE   JEWS 

pay  for  this  royal  "favor"  by  the  imposition  of 
special  taxes  in  addition  to  the  general  taxation 
of  which  they  had  to  bear  an  equal  share. 

Even  the  one  or  two  acts  of  Nicholas  seemingly 
favoring  the  Jews,  such  as  his  stand  upholding 
the  Jews  in  the  ritual-murder  trial  of  Velizh  in 
1835,  and  his  friendly  utterance  in  1839  that 
"they  [the  Jews]  are  my  children  and  my  servants 
altogether,"  cannot  be  taken  as  an  earnest  of  his 
desire  to  aid  them.  In  the  ritual-murder  case  in 
which  forty-two  leading  Jews  of  the  city  were  im- 
prisoned upon  the  accusation  of  an  immoral 
woman  that  they  had  murdered  her  boy  for  the 
use  of  his  blood  on  the  Passover,  the  grounds  were 
found  to  be  so  flimsy  that  the  Council  of  State 
could  take  no  other  action  than  to  acquit  the  ac- 
cused and  even  Nicholas  had  to  fall  in  with  their 
decision.  That  expressions  of  friendship  should 
be  made  for  the  victims  at  the  same  time  as  more 
weapons  were  being  forged  for  their  destruction, 
was  a  policy  quite  of  a  piece  with  the  entire  hypo- 
critical record  of  that  monarch.  It  served  the 
purpose  of  putting  the  Jews  off  their  guard,  as 
was  the  case  with  the  proposed  educational  re- 
forms when  Lilienthal  was  inveigled  into  believ- 
ing in  the  good  intentions  of  the  government,  and 
when  the  Jewish  communities  were  led  to  put 
faith  in  the  "Commission  on  Jewish  Education" 
which  met  in  St.  Petersburg  in  1843  and  to  which 
they  had  been  ordered  to  send  four  of  their  lead- 
ing representatives.*  At  no  time  was  there  an 
abatement  of  the  persecutions,  new  measures 
being  constantly  devised  to  render  the  lot  of  the 
Jews  increasingly  miserable  and  more  helpless.  In 
1844  the  Czar  abolished  the  Kahals,  the  last 
vestige  of  Jewish  autonomous  life  under  the  old 

*  The  Jewish  delegates  elected  were  Rabbi  Isaac,  head  of  the 
Volozhin  Yeshibah,  Rabbi  Mendel  Schneersohn,  head  of  the  Has- 
sidim,  Dr.  Basilius  (Bezalel)  Stern  and  Israel  Heilprin  of  Odessa. 


RUSSIA  123 

Polish  regime.  Henceforth  the  government  was 
to  deal  not  with  an  organized  representative  body 
of  Jews  but  with  each  of  them  individually  which, 
under  the  prevailing  circumstances,  meant  the 
opening  up  of  new  and  endless  sources  of  extor- 
tion for  the  petty  officials.  At  the  same  time  the 
government  turned  its  attention  to  the  melam- 
med'un,  or  Hebrew  teachers,  whom  it  regarded  as 
the  greatest  stumbling-block  to  the  programme  of 
Russification  and  whom  it  accordingly  forbade 
to  carry  on  their  educational  work.  The  latter 
persisted  in  their  task  at  the  risk  of  martyrdom. 
Another  oppressive  measure  was  the  prohibition 
to  wear  the  traditional  Jewish  dress.  A  special 
tax  was  levied  in  1844  on  all  wno  would  continue 
to  wear  the  Yarmolka,  or  skull-cap,  and  in  1853 
the  men  were  enjoined  from  wearing  their  long 
coats  as  well  as  their  peot  (side-locks)  while,  in 
the  following  year,  the  women  were  forbidden  to 
shave  their  heads  on  being  married,  as  was  the 
Jewish  custom  of  those  days.  Numerous  Jews 
were  seized  on  the  streets  of  the  larger  cities  and 
relieved  of  their  ear-locks  or  humiliated  by  hav- 
ing their  coat-tails  ripped  off.  Still  the  Jews 
persisted  in  their  accustomed  ways,  preferring  the 
martydrom  that  goes  with  constancy  to  the  yield- 
ing of  an  iota  of  what  to  them  was  part  of  their 
sacred  religion.  In  the  end  they  prevailed  even 
against  the  bloody  rule  of  the  "Iron  Czar,"  who 
found  himself  baffled  and  impotent  against  their 
united  will  and  purpose.  In  the  midst  of  another 
ritual  murder  trial  (Saratov)  Nicholas  died,  in 
1855,  and  with  the  accession  of  Alexander  II  the 
horizon  of  the  Jews  became  all  at  once  brightened 
and  there  began  for  them  the  unfoldment  of  a  new 
life.  The  next  quarter  of  a  century  was  to  see  the 
darkened  habitations  of  the  Jewish  "Pale"  flooded 
with  the  sunshine  of  heightened  hopes  and  glori- 


124  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

ous  expectations  coming  in  the  wake  of  the  com- 
paratively mild  regime  of  the  "Czar-Liberator." 

Alexander  II  (reigned  1855-1881)  was  the  very 
antipode  of  his  father  in  his  tastes  and  inclina- 
tions, and  in  many  important  respects  resembled 
his  uncle,  the  emperor  Alexander  I.  Like  the  lat- 
ter he  was  an  admirer  of  Western  life  and 
thought,  having  been  influenced  in  his  liberal  and 
altruistic  attitude  by  his  tutor,  the  poet  Zhukov- 
sky.  A  man  of  open  mind  and  warm  sympathies, 
he  was  not  blind  to  the  many  evils  of  his  father's 
administration,  and  upon  his  succession  to  the 
throne  was  eager  to  undo  them.  His  reign  was 
inaugurated  toward  the  close  of  the  Crimean  War, 
and  the  inglorious  part  played  by  Russia  in  that 
struggle  was  to  the  young  emperor  an  indication 
of  the  futility  of  all  Russian  autocratic  preten- 
sions when  placed  in  opposition  to  the  resistless 
sweep  of  Western  progress.  To  save  Russia  for 
Europe  she  must  herself  follow  in  the  footsteps 
of  her  great  Western  neighbors,  and  he  was  there- 
fore willing  to  grant  many  needed  reforms,  infuse 
a  new  spirit  of  liberalism  and  tolerance  in  religion 
and  in  government,  and  in  every  way  possible 
broaden  the  horizon  of  a  nation  still  fettered  in 
body  and  soul.  In  the  thousand-year  old  history 
of  Russian  darkness  Alexander  II  stands  out 
among  the  other  Czars  as  the  one  heroic  figure 
who,  by  a  stroke  of  his  pen,  emancipated  twenty- 
two  millions  of  serfs,  abolished  capital  punish- 
ment, curtailed  the  hereditary  rights  of  the  clergy, 
introduced  a  modern  judicial  sistem,  minimized  the 
evil  of  corporal  punishment  then  in  vogue  in  the 
army  and  the  civil  administration,  inaugurated  uni- 
versal conscription,  and  cut  short  the  term  of  mili- 
tary service,  which,  under  his  predecessors,  had 
been  for  twenty-five  years  and  often  for  a  life- 
time. Transportation  facilities  were  increased. 


RUSSIA  125 

mail  and  telegraph  service  was  improved,  educa- 
tional opportunities  were  multiplied,  freedom  of 
speech  and  of  the  press  was  granted  in  a  liberal 
measure.  A  new,  wonderful  and  hitherto  un- 
dreamed of  era  began  for  the  great  Empire  of 
the  North,  and  the  Jews,  too,  were  to  come  in  for 
a  share  of  the  manifold  blessings. 

The  first  favorable  measure  of  untold  magni- 
tude for  the  Jews  was  the  abolition,  in  1857,  of 
the  Cantonists'  school  to  which  Jewish  children 
were  forcibly  sent  for  military  training  and 
eventual  Christianization.  The  next  step  taken 
was  the  throwing  open  of  all  elementary  and  high 
schools  and  the  universities  to  the  Jewish  youth. 
Instead  of  setting  up  separate  schools  for  the  Jews 
and  thus  placing  them  in  a  class  apart,  widening 
the  gulf  between  Jews  and  Christians,  the  new 
measure  helped  to  place  the  Jews  upon  an  equal 
footing  with  the  non-Jews,  thereby  lending  im- 
petus to  the  hope  that  the  day  of  their  complete 
emancipation  was  not  far  off.  By  the  laws  of 
1859,  1861,  and  again  1865,  freedom  of  travel 
and  sojourn  in  the  inner  Russian  provinces  was 
granted  to  Jewish  university  graduates,  profes- 
sional men,  wholesale  merchants,  manufacturers 
and  artisans.  True,  these  were  still  "exceptional" 
measures,  granted  not  as  rights  for  the  many  but 
as  privileges  for  the  few,  and  affecting  only  an 
infinitesimal  portion  of  the  three  million  Jews  then 
living  in  the  empire.  All  the  other  discriminatory 
laws  were  still  rigorously  executed  and  there  were 
added  some  new  oppressive  measures  of  a  mild 
nature,  such  as  the  law  of  1855,  that  after  twenty 
years  only  seminary  graduates  could  become 
rabbis,  and  the  one  of  1856  placing  the  Hebrew 
schools  (Hedarim)  and  their  teachers  (melamme- 
dim)  under  strict  governmental  control.  So,  too, 
even  the  few  privileges  granted  were  not  free 


126  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

from  ambiguity,  providing-  many  a  loop-hole  to  the 
petty  officials  for  the  practice  of  abuse  and  extor- 
tion. Nevertheless,  there  is  little  reason  to  doubt 
the  real  benevolence  of  the  emperor's  motive. 
Progress  in  Russia  necessarily  had  to  be  slow,  and 
the  transition  from  the  reign  of  darkness  and  ter- 
ror of  Nicholas  to  one  of  complete  enlightenment 
could  not  be  accomplished  in  a  day,  at  least  not 
under  a  bureaucratic  regime  where  the  forces  of 
intolerance  are  ever  on  the  alert  and  struggling 
for  mastery.  Alexander,  too,  may  have  cherished 
hopes  for  the  gradual  absorption  of  the  Jews 
within  the  Christian  population, — what  autocratic 
Christian  ruler  in  Russia  was  ever  free  from  such 
hopes  and  designs?  For  the  Jews,  at  all  events, 
the  new  spirit  of  tolerance  was  to  result  in  a  rad- 
ical transformation  of  their  life  both  within  and 
without.  Where  Nicholas*  persecutions  brought 
about  only  an  increase  of  prejudice,  enmity  and 
hate  among  the  Christians,  Alexander's  liberal 
policy  reacted  favorably  upon  the  non-Jew,  caus- 
ing him  to  regard  this  persecuted  race  with 
greater  tolerance,  and  even  a  measure  of  sym- 
pathy. A  number  of  leading  publicists  and  high 
officials  now  took  up  the  cudgels  for  the  Jews 
against  their  traducers.  Katkoff  defended  them  in 
his  newspaper,  the  "Russkiya  Vyedomosti,"  while 
Pirogov,  the  eminent  pedagogue  and  superintend- 
ent of  education  for  the  Odessa  and  Kiev  districts, 
actively  interested  himself  in  their  welfare,  encour- 
aged poor  Jewish  students  to  enter  the  Kiev  uni- 
versity by  establishing  a  stipendiary  fund  for  their 
benefit,  and  took  a  hand  in  the  reorganization  of 
the  Jewish  schools.  Those  established  through 
the  initiative  of  Uvarov  and  Lilienthal  were  to 
undergo  a  radical  change.  Jews  took  the  place  of 
Christians  as  principals,  and  the  curriculum  was 
so  changed  as  to  allow  a  wider  programme  of 


RUSSIA  127 

studies  with  a  view  to  the  special  needs  of  the 
Jewish  pupils.  Steps  were  also  taken  to  estab- 
lish schools  in  the  Jewish  agricultural  colonies  in 
Southern  Russia,  where  Marcus  Gurovich  elabo- 
rated a  plan  for  graded  schools  in  charge  of  Jew- 
ish teachers,  having  due  regard  for  the  religious 
sensibilities  of  the  pupils.  Ten  such  schools  for 
both  boys  and  girls  were  opened  there  in  1868. 

A  prominent  part  in  the  development  of  these 
favorable  changes  was  played  by  the  "Learned 
Jew"  ("Uchony  Yevrei")  attached  to  the  gov- 
ernment, Moses  Berlin  (Shklov,  1821 -St.  Peters- 
burg, 1888),  who  splendidly  combined  in  his 
person  the  best  of  European  culture  acquired 
by  him  at  the  universities  of  Koenigsberg  and 
Bonn  with  the  thorough  Hebraic  and  Tal- 
mudical  training  he  received  in  his  native 
city.  An  efficient  pedagogue  and  a  scholarly 
writer  on  a  variety  of  subjects  in  both  He- 
brew and  Russian,  Berlin  was  in  1856  called  to 
St.  Petersburg  as  an  advisor  to  the  government 
on  matters  Jewish,  and  his  influence  was  greatly 
felt  in  much  of  the  legislation  enacted  by  Alex- 
ander II  in  favor  of  the  Jews.  His  was  the  role 
of  a  Shtadlan,  or  "Court-Jew,"  of  a  superior 
order,  one  who  exercised  his  influence  over  the  St. 
Petersburg  officialdom  not  through  his  wealth  but 
by  dint  of  a  charming  personality  and  authorita- 
tive schoralship.  His  pen  was  ever  at  the  service 
of  his  people  whenever  attacks  on  the  Jews  and 
their  faith  appeared  in  the  press,  and  he  repeat- 
edly served  on  the  delegation  of  Jewish  repre- 
sentatives which  appeared  before  both  Alexander 
II  and  Alexander  III  to  plead  for  the  Jews.  To 
him,  too,  was  due  in  large  measure  the  organiza- 
tion and  upbuilding  of  the  Imperial  Public  Library 
of  the  Russian  Capital. 

There  now  came  about  voluntarily  what  pro- 


128  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

scription  and  cruel  force  could  not  accomplish  in 
the  preceding  reign.  Nicholas'  harsh  treatment 
of  the  Jews  had  only  served  to  isolate  them  all 
the  more  and  to  make  them  a  solid  unit  against 
the  outside  world.  In  their  increased  legal  dis- 
abilities they  saw  the  infinite  and  unabating  hatred 
borne  them  by  the  Christian  world,  and  even  in  the 
few  attempts  made  for  the  ostensible  amelioration 
of  their  lot  they  could  only  discern  an  indubitable 
design  for  their  apostacy.  Hence  they  barricaded 
themselves  all  the  more  against  all  outside  influ- 
ences, and,  completely  withdrawing  from  non- 
Jewish  and  secular  interests,  sought  within  the 
rigid  religious  atmosphere  of  their  orthodox  life 
consolation  for  the  happiness  withheld  from  them 
by  the  larger  world  that  had  cast  them  out.  The 
new  and  liberal  regime,  with  its  numerous  re- 
forms affecting  the  welfare  of  Jew  and  non-Jew 
alike,  now  brought  about  a  change  of  attitude  on 
the  part  of  the  Jews  themselves.  The  ice  of  their 
hearts  began  to  melt  under  the  warm  rays  of  the 
new  if  limited  freedom,  and  at  the  prospect  of  the 
still  greater  freedom  to  come.  The  more  enlight- 
ened among  them  now  not  only  placed  implicit 
faith  in  the  good  intentions  of  the  government, 
but  relieved  that  for  the  Jews,  too,  the  time  had 
at  last  come  to  show  themselves  more  worthy  of 
the  new  life  by  emerging  from  their  exclusive- 
ness  and  becoming  a  more  integral  part  of  the 
great  Russian  nation.  Clearly  and  forcefully 
was  this  sentiment  voiced  by  the  literary  men  of 
the  day,  Judah  Loeb  Gordon,  the  eminent  Hebrew 
poet,  appealing: 

"Arise,  my  people,  't  is  time  for  waking ! 
Lo,  the  night  is  o'er,  the  day  is  breaking! 
Arise  and  see,  where'er  thou  turn'st  thy  face, 
How  changed  are  both  our  time  and  place. "* 

*  From   the  translation  by  Jacob   S.   Raisin,   in   "The   Haskalah 
Movement  in  Russia,"  Philadelphia,  1913,  p.  232. 


RUSSIA  129 

The    impossible,    because    forcible    and    dread- 
inspiring,  Russification  of  Nicholas  I  was  now  to 
find  its  happier  counterpart  in  the  peaceful  Rus- 
sianization  of  Alexander  II.     The  Jewish  youth, 
especially  those  of  the  larger  cities,  threw  them- 
selves upon  secular  studies  with  a  zeal  and  enthu- 
siasm  seldom   before  equaled  among  Jews;   they 
rushed  into  the   government   schools   and  gradu- 
ated with  distinction  from  the  universities.     In  a 
surprisingly  short  time  they  mastered  the  Russian 
language  and  literature,  many  of  them  acquiring 
a   style   which    for   dignity   and   idiomatic   purity 
was  rare  even  among  native  Russian  writers.     A 
number  of  Jewish  periodicals  in  the  Russian  made 
their  appearance,  three   of  them    in    Odessa,    the 
"Razsvyet"  (Dawn)  by  Osip  Rabbinovich,  in  1860, 
the  "Sion"  (Zion)  by  Soloveichik  in  1861,  and  the 
"Den"  (Day)  by  S.  Ornstein  in  1869,  all  weeklies, 
—and  three  others  in  St.  Petersburg,  the  "Yevrei- 
skaya  Biblioteka"   (Hebrew  Library),  an  annual, 
by  A.  E.  Landau,  in  1871,  the  weekly  "Russki  Yev- 
rei"  (Russian  Hebrew)  by  L.  J.  Berman  and  G.  M. 
Rabbinovitch  in  1879,  and  the  monthly  and  weekly 
"Voskhod"  (Dawn)  by  Adolph  Landau,  in  1881. 
Jews  soon  made  their  appearance  in  the  profes- 
sions, some  of  them  attaining  great  distinction  in 
their  chosen  fields,  such  as  Ilya  Orshanski  (Yeka- 
terinoslav,   1846-1875),  a  jurist  who,  while  yet  a 
very  young  man,  became  one  of  the  foremost  au- 
thorities on  Russian  civil  law,  and  also  attained  a 
place  of  prominence  as  a  writer  on  Jewish  scien- 
tific and  literary  topics  and  on  the  Jewish  prob- 
lem in  Russia;  Menasseh    Margolis     (Berdichev, 
i837~Odessa     1912),     and     Max     Mandelstamm 
(Zhagory,  Kovno,   i838-Kiev,   1912),  the  famous 
specialist  for  eye  diseases,  who,  later,  became  one 
of    the    leaders    of    Zionism    and    Territorialism. 
From  this  period  dates  also  the  advent  of  the  two 


I3O  HISTORY    OP    THE    JEWS 

greatest  Orientalists  Russian  Jewry  has  produced, 
Daniel  Chwolson  (Vilna,  iSiQ-St.  Petersburg, 
1911),  at  one  time  professor  of  Oriental  lan- 
guages at  the  University  of  St.  Petersburg  and 
later  at  the  Academy  for  the  training  of  priests, 
an  author  of  many  scholarly  works  in  Russian, 
German  and  Hebrew  who,  though  a  convert  to 
Christianity,  never  abandoned  his  interest  in  the 
welfare  of  the  Jews,  and  time  and  again  defended 
them  against  all  attacks  in  his  learned  disserta- 
tions,— and  Abraham  Harkavy  (b.  Novogrudok, 
1839)  historian  and  eminent  Semitic  philologist, 
who,  notwithstanding  his  refusal  to  abandon  Juda- 
ism, was  nevertheless  appointed  (1877)  to  the  dis- 
tinguished position  of  librarian  at  the  Imperial 
Library  of  St.  Petersburg,  a  post  he  still  holds. 
It  was  Harkavy  who,  probably  more  than  any 
other  scholar,  exposed  the  literary  forgeries  of 
Abraham  Firkovitch,  the  Russian  Karaite  author 
and  traveller  (Lutsk,  Volhynia,  1786-Chufut-Kale, 
Crimea,  1874).  The  advent  of  this  Russian  Jew- 
ish renaissance  gave  rise  also  to  a  school  of  able 
and  brilliant  novelists,  who  made  use  of  their 
talents  for  the  portrayal  of  the  Jew  in  a  more 
sympathic  light  than  had  theretofore  been  in 
vogue  among  the  Christian  novelists.  Until  the 
time  of  Alexander,  all  treatment  of  the  Jew  in 
literature  was  marked  by  ignorance  and  deep 
intolerance.  The  inimical  attitude  of  Nicholas  re- 
acted upon  the  writers  of  his  day  who  either 
vulgarly  caricatured  the  Jew  or  presented  him  in 
the  light  of  a  monstrous  excrescence  upon  the 
body  social  of  Russia.  Pushkin,  Gogol,  Lermon- 
toff  and  later  even  Turgenieff  had  nothing  good 
and  everything  bad  to  say  about  him.  In  the  lib- 
eral regime  of  Alexander  this  tendency  at  vilifica- 
tion received  a  set-back.  Antisemitism  as  a  na- 
tional policy,  such  as  Germany  saw  in  the  last 


RUSSIA  13! 

decades  of  the  nineteenth  century,  was  not  as  yet 
known  in  Russia,  where  public  opinion  was  still 
merely  an  echo  of  the  attitude  of  the  Court.  It 
must  be  said  to  the  credit  of  Russia's  men  of  let- 
ters that,  once  the  friendly  disposition  of  the  em- 
peror toward  the  Jews  became  known,  they  did 
not  hesitate  to  come  out  openly  as  their  friends 
and  sympathisers.  They  protested  against  the  use 
of  the  contemptuous  Zhid  in  speaking  of  the  Jew, 
and  time  and  again  expressed  their  hopes  for  his 
speedy  emancipation.  It  was,  however,  left  to  the 
Jewish  .writers  themselves  to  fight  their  people's 
battles  and  remove  the  stigma  that  had  so  un- 
justly been  placed  upon  it  in  the  literature  of  the 
country.  Such  writers  were  found  in  Grigori  Bo- 
grow  (Poltava,  i835-Derevki,  Minsk,  1885),  who 
enjoyed  the  distinction  of  being  the  first  talented 
Jewish  novelist  to  \vrite  for  the  prominent  Russian 
monthly  "Otechestvenniya  Zapiski,"  where,  from 
1871  to  1873,  ne  published  a  serial  story  "Zapiski 
Yevreya"  (Reminiscences  of  a  Jew)  taken  from 
Russian  Jewish  life.  It  was  the  first  attempt  to 
depict  Jewish  life  before  educated  Russian  classes, 
and  his  fine  style  and  ability  as  an  analytical  nar- 
rator made  a  profound  impression  upon  the  Rus- 
sian world.  Another  eminent  novelist  was  Lev 
Levanda  (Minsk,  1835-81.  Petersburg,  1888),  the. 
Utchony  Yevrei  (learned  Jew)  of  Yilna,  who  be- 
ginning as  an  assimilationist  ended  as  a  warm 
sympathizer  with  the  movement  for  Palestinian 
colonization.  But  probably  the  most  noted  Rus- 
sian Jewish  writer  of  this  period  was  Osip  Rab- 
binovich  (Kobelyaki,  Poltava,  1817-  Meran,  Tyrol, 
1869),  tne  founder  of  the  first  Jewish  journal  in 
the  Russian  language,  the  "Razsvyet"  (1860)  and 
the  author  of  numerous  articles  and  novels  advo- 
cating a  more  friendly  attitude  toward  the  Jew  on 
the  part  of  Christians.  Beginning  his  literary 


132  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

career  in  1847  with  a  fine  Russian  translation  of 
the  Hebrew  poem  "Ha-Kerav,"  by  Eichenbaum,  he 
at  once  became  an  object  of  admiration  for  Rus- 
sia's literary  circles  who  marvelled  at  the  mas- 
terly Russian  diction  of  an  obscure  and  despised 
Jew.  This  was  followed  by  a  great  number  of 
articles  and  stories  dealing  with  Russian-Jewish 
questions.  His  greatest  literary  activity  took 
place  during  the  first  six  years  of  Alexander's 
reign,  his  most  prominent  work  being  "Shtrafnoi" 
(The  Punished  One)  which  had  the  distinction 
of  being  translated  by  the  historian  Marcus  Jost 
(in  "JanrDucn  fuer  die  Geshichte  der  Juden  und 
des  Judenthums")  immediately  after  its  appear- 
ance in  1860.  The  book  enjoyed  an  unprecedented 
circulation  for  a  Russian  Jewish  novel  in  those 
days,  the  entire  first  edition  of  4,800  copies  being 
sold  out  in  the  first  two  weeks.  It  was  also  trans- 
lated into  Hebrew  (1865).  Unlike  the  other 
writers  mentioned  Rabbinovich  was  never  a 
preacher  of  assimilation,  but  rather  used  his  facile 
and  gifted  pen  to  stimulate  the  self-respect  of  his 
co-religionists  and  to  heighten  their  interest  in 
Jewish  culture. 

Yet  the  greatest  effect  of  Alexander's  mild 
regime  was  felt  among  the  Maskilim  or  intellect- 
uals, .  who  made  use  of  the  Hebrew  language  as 
the  most  useful  and  effective  vehicle  for  dis- 
seminating their  ideas  of  enlightment  among  the 
masses.  Russian  was  as  yet  a  foreign  tongue  to 
the  great  mass  of  the  Jews  and  even  the  enlight- 
ened among  them  still  applied  themselves  to  ac- 
quiring the  Polish  and  more  especially  the  German 
language  and  literature  rather  than  the  vernacu- 
lar of  the  country  they  lived  in.  As  late  as  1865, 
ninety-three  years  after  Polish  Jewry  passed 
under  Russian  dominion,  members  of  the  Odessa 
group  of  the  "Society  for  the  Promotion  of  En- 


RUSSIA  133 

lightenment  Among  the  Jews  in  Russia"  still  hesi- 
tated about  extending  the  scope  of  instruction  in 
the  Russian  language  among  the  Jews  of  the 
"Pale,"  Dr.  Schwabacher,  the  Odessa  rabbi,  firmly 
opposing  the  proposed  plan  of  translating  portions 
of  the  prayer  book  into  the  Russian  for  the  bene- 
fit of  the  Jewish  children,  on  the  ground  that  it 
might  interfere  with  their  German  studies.  More 
than  they  cared  for  the  Russian  literature  which 
was  to  many  of  them  merely  the  expression  of 
Muscovite  barbarism,  the  Maskilim  concerned 
themselves  with  German  culture  which  they  re- 
garded as  the  very  acme  of  man's  intellectual 
achievement.  Even  in  later  years,  when  the  Rus- 
sianization  of  the  Jew  had  become  more  general, 
the  degree  of  culture  one  possessed  depended  upon 
his  measure  of  adaptation  of  German  ways  and 
dress,  the  use  of  the  German  language  at  home  in 
place  of  the  then  despised  Yiddish,  and,  in  the 
case  of  the  man  of  letters,  on  his  ability  to  employ 
the  German  in  his  writings.  Even  so  prominent 
a  scholar  as  Joshua  Steinberg  (Vilna,  1839-1909), 
distinguished  alike  as  an  educator  and  Hebrew 
grammarian  and  lexicographer,  who  was  one  of 
the  most  prolific  of  authors  in  both  Hebrew  and 
Russian,  reverted  from  time  to  time  to  the  Ger- 
man for  his  literary  work,  though  in  his  day  the 
reforms  of  Alexander  II  had  already  reconciled 
the  Jew  to  all  things  Russian,  including  the 
language. 

A  brief  resume  of  this  remarkable  movement 
here  becomes  necessary.  Haskalah,  glowingly 
spoken  of  as  the  "Daughter  of  Heaven,"  was,  in 
reality,  the  "Daughter  of  Germany,"  where  it 
first  received  its  impetus  through  Mendelssohn's 
cultural  activities,  his  translation  of  the  Penta- 
teuch into  German  (the  German  text  being  printed 
in  Hebrew  characters),  accompanying  it  with  his 


134  HISTORY    OF    THE   JEWS 

"Biur,"  or  commentary,  and  the  establishment  of 
the  "Ha-Meassef,"  (1784-1811),  the  first  literary 
periodical  in  Hebrew,  to  which  Mendelssohn  at 
first  was  himself  a  contributor.  To  Germany  many 
of  Poland's  Jews  pilgrimed  in  their  anxiety  for  a 
broader  cultural  horizon,  among"  them  being  Solo- 
mon Dubno  (1738-1813),  the  noted  Hebrew  gram- 
marian and  Bible  exegete,  who  was  tutor  to  the 
children  of  Mendelssohn  and  assisted  the  latter 
in  his  Bible  translation,  and  Solomon  Maimon 
(Niesvizh,  Minsk,  1754-Niedersiegersdorf,  Silesia, 
1800),  one  of  the  noblest  minds  of  his  day,  a  pro- 
tege of  Mendelssohn  and  of  Kant,  "the  greatest 
Jewish  philosopher  since  the  time  of  Spinoza," 
"with  whose  depth  of  reasoning  he  combined  an 
ease  and  straightforwardness  of  illustration  char- 
acteristic of  Benjamin  Franklin."*  And  not  only 
did  Polish  Jewish  scholars  travel  to  Germany 
whence  they  returned  with  a  wealth  of  informa- 
tion and  a  deepened  appreciation  of  the  "Haskalah 
of  Berlin,"  but  many  German  and  Galician  Jews 
took  up  their  homes  in  some  of  the  great  Polish 
and  South-Russian  cities,  among  them  men  like 
Pinsker,  Eichenbaum,  Feder,  Rosen  f eld  and  Perez, 
who  became  noted  as  scholars,  financiers  or  diplo- 
matists, some  of  them,  like  Perez,  attaining  a  posi- 
tion of  distinction  in  the  court  circles  of  Paul  and 
Alexander  I,  and  all  of  them  exercising  a  great 
cultural  influence  among  the  Russian  Jews.  With 
its  progress  arrested  in  Germany,  where  the  Jews 
soon  became  so  thoroughly  "kulturized"  as  to 
abandon  the  Hebrew  language  and  with  it,  as  in 
the  case  of  so  many  of  them,  even  their  Hebrew 
religion, — Haskalah  found  a  brief  halting  place  in 
Galicia,  where  again  the  process  of  assimilation 
followed  in  the  wake  of  enlightenment,  thus 


*  Bernfeld  in  "Dor  Tahapukhot,"   Part  Two,  p.  66. 


RUSSIA  135 

frightening  away  the  religiously  loyal  Jewish 
masses  who,  apparently  not  without  justification, 
came  to  regard  all  education  as  the  foe  of  Juda- 
ism. But  the  short-lived  Galician  period  was  only 
introductory  to  the  Russian  period.  The  promi- 
nent Galician  Hebraists  like  Nahman  Krochmal, 
Dr.  M.  Letteris,  S.  L.  Rapoport,  Dr.  Isaac  Erter 
and  Joseph  Perl  wielded  a  greater  influence  in 
Russia  than  they  did  in  Galicia.  For  Russia  was 
still  the  one  great  virgin  soil  for  Germanic  cul- 
ture, the  very  hatred  of  the  Jews  there  for  the 
comparatively  poor  and  puerile  language  and 
literature  of  their  Slavic  persecutors  causing  them 
to  turn  with  all  the  greater  relish  to  the  rich  and 
captivating  German  literature  which,  unlike  the 
Russian,  abounded  in  liberal  and  humanitarian 
ideas.  And  this  attitude  continued  for  many  de- 
cades, producing  among  the  Russian  Maskilim  a 
state  of  mind  where  everything  German  was  ex- 
alted and  magnified,  and  all  things  Russian  were 
belittled.  "Till  about  the  sixties,"  says  Dr.  Jacob 
S.  Raisin  in  his  book  on  "The  Haskalah  Movement 
in  Russia,"  "the  Russo-Jewish  Maskilim  were  the 
recipients,  and  the  German  Jews  the  donors.  The 
German  Jews  wrote,  the  Russian  Jews  read.  Ger- 
many was  to  the  Jewish  world,  during  the  early 
Haskalah  movement  what  France,  according  to 
Guizot,  was  to  Europe  during  the  Renaissance: 
both  received  an  impetus  from  the  outside  in  the 
form  of  raw  ideas,  and  modified  them  to  suit  their 
environment.  Berlin  was  still,  as  it  had  been  dur- 
ing the  days  of  Mendelssohn  and  Wessely,  the 
sanctuary  of  learning,  the  citadel  of  culture.  In 
the  highly  cultivated  German  literature  they  found 
treasures  of  wisdom  and  science." 

The  use  of  the  Hebrew  language  was  not  then, 
as  it  is  now,  a  sign  of  a  particular  nationalistic 
consciousness.  Jewish  nationalism  as  a  question 


136  HISTORY  OF  THE  JEWS 

of  world-wide  importance  was  as  yet  unknown. 
The  Jews  were  race-conscious  as  well  as  religion- 
conscious,  but  the  question  had  not  yet  arisen 
among  the  Russian  Jews  as  to  what  goes  to  make 
the  Jewish  race,  and  whether  or  not  the  racial  in- 
tegrity of  the  Jew  depended  upon  the  integrity  of 
his  religion.  It  is  a  curious  circumstance  that  the 
question  of  religious  reforms,  which  in  Germany 
was  for  many  years  storming  the  very  citadel  of 
Jewish  life,  had  found  scarcely  an  echo  in  Russia 
with  the  possible  exception  of  M.  L.  Lilienblum's 
vigorous  attacks  on  orthodoxy,  which,  however, 
led  to  no  organized  movement  and  is  explainable 
by  the  fact  that  the  economic  distress  and  political 
oppression  of  the  Jews  left  them  no  respite  for  re- 
flection upon  the  need  of  such  reforms.  The  Mas- 
kilim  regarded  it  as  part  of  the  educational  prob- 
lem the  solution  of  which  would  also  solve  the  re- 
ligious question.  In  a  measure,  this  surmise  was 
quite  true.  But  unfortunately  the  solution  proved 
an  adverse  one,  for,  as  a  rule,  the  educated  Jew 
became  also  the  alienated  Jew.  The  fears  of  the 
Jews  who  opposed  the  school  reforms  of  Nicholas 
I  were  all  justified  in  view  of  the  numerous  con- 
versions which  followed  the  inauguration  of  Alex- 
ander's liberal  regime  and  the  peaceful  Russian- 
ization  of  the  Jews  which  came  in  its  train.  The 
apostasy  of  men  like  Chwolson,  the  Orientalist, 
Shapira,  the  noted  Hebrew  poet,  Kowner,  the  lit- 
erary critic,  and  Bogrov,  the  brilliant  novelist, 
was  an  unmistakable  sign  of  the  danger  lurking 
for  Judaism  in  a  heedless  rush  for  secular  learn- 
ing so  long  as  Russian  Jewry  remained  in  a  state 
of  political  bondage,  their  rights  still  unestablished 
and  their  few  privileges  subject  to  momentary  re- 
peal at  the  mere  whim  of  the  ruler.  The  Mas- 
kilim,  however,  failed  to  fathom  the  source  of 
this  danger  and  themselves  not  a  little  contributed 


RUSSIA  137 

to  its  realization.  Ridiculing  the  old  religious  cus- 
toms, +hey  failed  to  see  that  rather  than  eradicate 
its  objectionable  features  they  were  really  under- 
mining the  very  foundation  of  Judaism.  Their 
captious  criticism  of  all  that  was  old  and  obsolete 
in  Judaism  proved  destructive  rather  than  helpful, 
and  many  were  the  youths  whose  minds*  became 
poisoned  against  their  people  as  well  as  their  re- 
ligion. The  most  fatal  mistake  of  the  Maskilim 
was  the  line  they  drew  between  the  man  and  the 
religionist  in  the  Jew,  Judah  Loeb  Gordon,  the 
poet,  upholding  it  as  one  of  the  ideals  of  Has- 
kalah  to  be 

"A  Jew  at  home,  a  man  without." 

This  unfortunate  tendency  among  the  Maskilim 
in  the  reign  of  Alexander  II  was  the  heritage  of 
the  days  of  Nicholas  I,  when,  as  already  pointed 
out,  the  Jewish  intellectuals,  unlike  the  great 
masses  in  Jewry  who  perceived  more  clearly  the 
true  motives  of  the  Czar,  actually  believed  that 
the  obstacle  to  Jewish  emancipation  lay  in  the  ob- 
stinacy of  the  Jews  themselves  and  their  opposi- 
tion to  all  forms  of  modernism.  To  their  credit 
be  it  said  that  those  early  Maskilim  were  not  ac- 
tuated by  any  willful  motive  of  religious  destruc- 
tiveness.  With  the  life  and  activity  of  some  of 
them  we  shall  here  concern  ourselves  for  a  little 
while.  Mention  has  already  been  made  of  Isaac 
Baer  Levinsohn  (1788-1860)  of  Kremenetz,  Vol- 
hynia,  the  first  and  foremost  of  the  Russian  Mas- 
kilim, who  by  his  great  attainments  earned  the 
title  of  the  "Russian  Mendelssohn,"  and  who  for 
his  educational  endeavors  among  his  co-religion- 
ists was  signally  favored  by  the  Czar.  A  man  of 
profound  learning  in  Talmud,  and  well  versed  in 
a  number  of  European  languages  and  their  litera- 


138  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

tures,  a  disciple  and  admirer  of  the  renowned 
Maskilim  of  Galicia  where,  in  his  youth,  he  had 
spent  a  number  of  years,  Levinsohn  was  emi- 
nently fitted  for  the  role  he  was  to  play  in  the 
life  of  his-  co-religionists  in  his  native  land.  He 
tried  his  hand  in  poetry,  some  of  which  was  pub- 
lished, and  wrote  the  first  grammar  in  Hebrew 
of  the  Russian  language  which,  for  lack  of  funds, 
never  appeared  in  print.  He,  however,  was  des- 
tined for  a  more  important  work.  -  On  his  return 
to  Russia  in  1820  he  began  writing  his  magnum 
opus,  the  "Teudah  be-Yisrael"  which,  when  pub- 
lished in  1828,  created  a  profound  stir  all  through 
Russian  Jewry  and  probably  did  more  than  any 
other  work  in  bringing  about  the  cultural  regen- 
eration of  his  people.  While  yet  in  manuscript  the 
contents  of  the  book  were  brought  to  the  atten- 
tion of  the  Czar,  who,  at  the  instance  of  his 
Minister  Bludov,  thanked  the  author  and  presented 
him  with  a  gift  of  one  thousand  roubles  "for  a 
work  in  Hebrew  having  for  its  object  the  moral 
education  of  the  Jewish  people."  The  nature  and 
aim  of  the  book,  as  Levinsohn  states  in  his 
preface,  is  to  point  out  to  his  brethren  "the  true 
way  of  life,"  to  tell  them  "what  learning,  aside 
from  the  Talmud  and  its  commentaries,  it  is 
necessary  for  the  Jew  to  acquire  for  the  perfec- 
tion and  refinement  of  his  nature  as  a  man  and 
a  Jew."  In  gentle,  persuasive,  though  somewhat 
verbose  and  prolix  language  he  pleads  the  cause 
of  Haskalah  from  the  rabbinic  point  of  view, 
arguing  that  the  great  makers  of  the  Talmud  and 
many  of  the  later  luminaries  were  themselves  pro- 
gressive spirits  and  not  opposed  to  general  learn- 
ing in  which  they  were  themselves  well-versed. 
The  Talmud  itself,  however,  need  not  be  taken 
as  an  authority  on  history  and  the  natural  sci- 
ences. For  this  recourse  must  be  had  to  the 


RUSSIA  139 

"learning  of  the  Gentiles,"  which  is  not  in  itself 
incompatible  with  the  enlightening  spirit  of  Juda- 
ism. But  if  the  "Teudah"  is  an  epistle  to  the  Jews, 
seeking  on  strictly  religious  grounds,  to  predispose 
them  in  favor  of  "the  beauty  of  Japhet,"  his  other 
great  work,  the  "Bet  Yehudah"  (House  of 
Judah),  though  written  in  Hebrew,  is  in  reality 
an  epistle  to  the  Gentiles,  with  whom  he  pleads 
for  a  better  understanding  of  their  Jewish  neigh- 
bors and  of  the  supreme  moral  value  of  Judaism. 
In  writing  this  book  Levinsohn  was  doubtless  in- 
fluenced by  the  questionaire  submitted  to  him  in 
1827  by  Prince  Lieven,  the  Czar's  Minister  of 
Public  Instruction,  which  included  among  its 
thirty-four  items  such  questions  as  "What  is  the 
Talmud?"  "Is  there  anything  sensible  in  it?" 
"What  is  the  object  of  the  numerous  [Jewish] 
rites  that  consume  so  much  useful  time?"  "Is  it 
true  that  the  Talmud  forbids  the  Jews  the  study 
of  foreign  languages  and  science,  as  well  as  the 
pursuit  of  agricultural  occupations?"  "What  is 
Hassidism?"  "What  Messiah  is  it  that  the  Jews 
are  expecting?"  "How  can  a  Jew  be  admitted 
into  Christian  society  and  be  accorded  full  civic 
rights  when  he  keeps  himself  aloof  from  the  Chris- 
tians and  takes  no  interest  in  the  welfare  of  the 
country  where  he  resides?"  Levinsohn  gives  a 
clear  and  convincing  answer  to  all  such  queries, 
refutes  on  the  authority  of  the  Talmud  and  later 
rabbinic  works  all  the  malevolent  imputations 
about  the  Jews  and  their  faith,  and  makes  a  touch- 
ing appeal  for  reforms  in  their  political  and  eco- 
nomic condition,  pointing  out  also  the  need  of 
secular  and  agricultural  schools  and  of  seminaries 
for  the  training  of  rabbis.  The  book  was  not  pub- 
lished until  1838,  but  its  leading  ideas  had  already 
been  communicated  to  Jewish  and  Christian  circles 
and  its  effect  upon  the  government  can  be  seen 


I4O  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

from  the  fact  that  only  about  two  years  or  less 
after  the  appearance  of  the  "Bet  Yehudah"  the 
Czar  entered  upon  his  plan  for  Jewish  school  re- 
forms, invited  Dr.  Lilienthal  to  work  out  the  de- 
tails and  prepare  the  Jewish  masses  for  the  coming 
changes,  and  actually  established  the  two  rabbinical 
seminaries  of  Vilna  and  Zhitomir,  as  Levinsohn 
had  advocated.  Upon  the  Jews  themselves  the  book 
had  a  profound  impression  and  even  among  the 
Hassidim  and  the  ultra-orthodox  Rabbinites  it 
brought  about  a  more  sympathetic  disposition  to- 
ward the  author  and  helped  remove  the  rather  un- 
favorable sentiment  created  by  the  "Teudah."  It 
was  translated  into  Polish  and  its  fame  spread 
even  to  Germany,  where  Abraham  Geiger  brought 
the  excellence  of  the  work  to  the  attention  of  his 
Breslau  congregation. 

The  favorite  and  protege  of  many  prominent 
Russian  officials,  and  enjoying  the  special  friend- 
ship of  Prince  Wittgenstein,  the  Russian  field- 
marshall,  who  was  so  fond  of  him  as  to  entertain 
him  at  his  residence  and  to  go  to  him  for  advice 
on  many  important  questions,  Levinsohn  neverthe- 
less passed  his  life  in  poverty  and  want.  Attacked 
by  a  fatal  malady  which  kept  him  bed-ridden,  he 
still  continued  his  studies  and  his  literary  activi- 
ties and,  like  Heine  from  his  "mattress-grave," 
produced,  while  on  his  couch  of  sickness,  several 
other  works  which  added  to  his  fame  and  to  his 
usefulness  as  an  educator  and  defender  of  his 
people.  His  "Efes  Dammim"  (No  Blood!),  pub- 
lished in  1837,  was  written  in  connection  with  the 
ritual-murder  accusation  of  the  Jews  of  Zaslav, 
Volhynia,  and  had  a  great  effect  on  the  outside 
world,  it  having  been  translated  into  Russian,  Ger- 
man and  English,  the  latter  at  the  instance  of  Sir 
Moses  Montefiore  at  the  time  of  the  Damascus 
blood  accusation  (1840).  A  far  more  ambitious 


SIR   MOSES   MONTEFIORE 

(1784-1885) 


RUSSIA  141 

work  is  "Zerubbabel,"  which  was  also  written  at 
the  request  of  Montefiore  on  the  latter's  visit  to 
Russia  in  1846,  and  which  is  in  the  main  directed 
against  the  English  missionary  McCaul  who  had 
vilified  and  maligned  the  Jews  and  the  Talmud  in 
his  "Old  Paths."  Several  other  minor  works  in 
Hebrew  and  Yiddish,  some  of  them  of  posthu- 
mous publication,  complete  the  literary  activ- 
ity of  this  truly  remarkable  man  who,  after 
Elijah  Gaon,  was  probably  the  greatest  intellec- 
tual luminary  of  Russian  Jewry,  and  whose  influ- 
ence on  the  cultural  development  of  his  brethren 
was  incalculable. 

Another  prominent  writer  of  this  period  in 
whom  were  summed  up  the  hopes  and  plans  of 
the  Haskalah  in  its  early  stage,  was  Abraham 
Dob-Baer  ("Adam  ha-Kohen")  Lebensohn  (Vil- 
na,  1789-1878),  poet,  grammarian,  and  later  pro- 
fessor at  the  rabbinical  institute  at  Vilna,  who 
was  mainly  known  for  his  volume  of  poems  "Shire 
Sefat  Kodesh"  (published  in  Leipzig,  1842),  but 
who,  like  Levinsohn  before  him,  illustrated  the 
Richtung  and  aims  of  the  Haskalah  in  his  notable 
memorial  to  Sir  Moses  Montefiore  on  the  latter's 
visit  to  Vilna  in  1846,  in  which  he  pointed  out  the 
evils  that  obtained  in  the  Jewish  community,  the 
widespread  ignorance  and  superstition  of  the 
masses,  the  lack  of  secular  education  among  the 
rabbis,  and  the  perverted  ideas  of  education  then 
in  vogue.  As  a  poet  Lebensohn  was  to  be  sur- 
passed by  his  young  son,  Micah  Joseph,  but  as 
the  teacher  and  inspiration  of  Judah  Loeb  Gordon 
and  other  young  writers  his  influence  upon  the 
Haskalah  of  his  day  was  considerable. 

But  next  in  importance  to  Levinsohn  only, 
among  the  fathers  of  Russian  Haskalah,  is  his 
contemporary  Mordecai  Aaron  Guenzburg  (Sa- 
lanty,  Kovno,  1795-Vilna,  1846)  who  enjoys  the 


142  HISTORY    OF    THE   JEWS 

distinction  of  being  the  creator  of  the  modern  He- 
brew prose  style.  Not  as  thoroughgoing  a  stu- 
dent as  Levinsohn,  he  was  more  prolific  than  the 
sage  of  Kremenetz,  and  his  writings  were  of  a 
more  practical  nature,  having  a  direct  bearing 
upon  the  educational  needs  of  his  people.  A  teach- 
er by  profession,  noted  for  his  thoroughness  and 
exactness,  Guenzburg  shows  the  same  qualities  of 
the  skillful  pedagogue  in  all  of  his  writings.  His 
one  aim  was  to  educate  the  people,  therefore  he 
had  little  patience  with  those  who  used  a  style 
weighted  down  with  the  obsolete  orientalisms  and 
conceits  known  as  melizah.  In  all  of  his  many 
books,  consisting  of  fifteen  volumes,  he  presents 
his  subject  matter  in  a  clear  and  convincing  man- 
ner, and  he  writes  only  on  useful,  informative 
topics,  such  as  his  history  of  the  discovery  of 
America,  of  the  French  invasion  of  Russia,  his 
one  volume  of  universal  history,  his  description  of 
the  Damascus  ritual-murder  trial,  his  history  of 
Russia,  his  history  of  Europe  from  17/0  to  1812, 
and  his  translation  of  Philo's  account  of  his  mis- 
sion to  Rome.  In  his  "Debir"  (Holy  of  Holies) 
he  gives  an  essay  on  style  of  which  he  was  himself 
a  master,  while  in  his  autobiographical  work  "Abi- 
ezer"  he  presents  a  vivid  and  realistic  picture  of 
the  educational  shortcomings  of  Russian  Jewry  and 
of  the  gross  superstitions  to  which  they  were  still 
in  bondage.  It  was  Guenzburg  who,  after  sup- 
porting Lilienthal,  in  the  end  turned  against  him 
and  in  his  pamphlet  "Maggid  Emet"  shattered  the 
halo  which  the  Russian  Maskilim  had  been  wont 
to  place  around  the  educated  rabbi  of  German 
schooling.  Such  rabbis  he  thought  unfit  for  their 
positions  because  of  their  lack  of  sufficient  Jew- 
ish learning.  On  the  other  hand,  he  inveighed 
against  the  rabbis  of  the  old  school  whose  igno- 
rance of  the  language  and  the  laws  of  the  land 


RUSSIA  143 

disqualified    them    as    proper    representatives    of 
their  people. 

To  these  fathers  of  Russian  Haskalah  must  be 
added  the  two  brothers  Mandelstamm,  Benjamin 
(Zhagory,  died  in  Simferopol,  1886),  the  delight- 
ful author  of  "Hazon  la-Moed,"  a  book  of  poetic 
prose,  touching  mainly  on  the  life  of  the  Russian 
Jews  in  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
who,  like  M.  A.  Guenzburg,  turned  from  Lilien- 
thal  after  first  supporting  him  most  enthusiasti- 
cally, and  Leon  (Zhagory,  Kovno,  iSog-St.  Pe- 
tersburg, 1889),  the  distinguished  educator  and 
author  of  a  number  of  works  in  poetry  and  prose, 
and  of  text-books  in  Hebrew,  Russian  and  Ger- 
man. It  was  he  who  acted  as  secretary  to  the 
rabbinical  commission  which  met  in  St.  Peters- 
burg in  1843  to  decide  on  the  details  of  the  pro- 
posed Jewish  schools  and  who,  after  Lilienthal 
had  left  Russia  for  the  United  States,  succeeded 
him  in  his  position  as  educational  reformer  and 
continued  as  such  for  twelve  years.  The  estab- 
lishment of  the  new  schools  as  of  the  two  rabbini- 
cal seminaries  was  carried  out  under  his  direction, 
and  much  of  the  blame  for  the  un-Jewish  spirit 
of  those  institutions  was  laid  at  his  door,  though 
in  reality  he  was  only  an  unwilling  tool  in  the  hands 
of  the  government. 

In  opposition  to  the  Maskilim  of  the  radical 
type  there  were  not  lacking  also  a  number  of 
celebrities  of  more  conservative  tendencies  who, 
though  greatly  outnumbered  by  the  former,  nev- 
ertheless acted  as  a  check  upon  them  and  thus, 
in  a  measure,  helped  to  hold  Haskalah  down  to  a 
more  moderate  course.  Among  these  were  the 
two  distinguished  Vilna  scholars,  Samuel  Joseph 
Fuenn  (1819-1891),  author  of  many  works 
among  them  "Kiryah  Ne'emanah,"  a  highly  sym- 
pathetic history  of  the  Jewish  Community  of  Vilna, 


144  HISTORY   OF   THE   JEWS 

founder  and  editor  of  "Ha-Karmel,"  and  one  of 
the  first  to  fill  the  post  of  professor  in  the  newly- 
founded  rabbinical  seminary  of  Vilna  (1848),  and 
his  life-long  friend  and  admirer,  Mathias  Stra- 
shun  (1817-1885),  who  contributed  to  most  of 
the  periodicals  of  his  day,  annotated  Fuenn's 
"Kiryah  Ne'emanah"  and  used  his  considerable 
fortune  in  amassing  a  valuable  library,  the  posthu- 
mously printed  catalogue  of  which  he  had  himself 
prepared.  Both  these  men,  though  votaries  of 
German  culture,  and  themselves  highly  versed  in 
the  classical  as  well  as  the  modern  languages  and 
their  literatures,  nevertheless  set  an  example  of 
rigorous  constancy  in  their  orthodox  life,  preached 
a  greater  loyalty  to  Jewish  ideals,  and  made  use 
of  their  cultural  attainments  mainly  in  the  fur- 
therance of  Jewish  learning.  This  was  even  more 
true  of  Eliezer  Zebi  Zweifel  (Mohilev,  1815- 
Glukhov,  1888)  who,  though  a  teacher  at  the  rab- 
binical seminary  of  Zhitomir,  a  radical  institu- 
tion, attracted  much  attention  as  a  defender  of 
Hassidism  and  especially  of  its  founder,  Israel 
Baal  Shem  Tob  in  his  "Shalom  Al  Yisrael"  (Peace 
Upon  Israel"),  even  as  in  a  later  work,  "Sanegor," 
(The  Pleader)  he  speaks  apologetically  of  the 
Talmud  and  Orthodoxy  in  general.  Because  of 
his  apologetic  attitude  Zweifel  aroused  the  ire  of 
the  other  Maskilim  who  for  a  long  time  made  him 
the  target  of  their  attacks.  He,  however,  per- 
sisted in  his  course  and  being  a  highly  versatile 
and  prolific  writer,  in  Yiddish  no  less  than  in  He- 
brew, using  poetry  with  equal  facility  as  prose, 
his  impress  upon  his  generation  was  profound. 

And  nowr,  under  the  benevolent  rule  of  the  sec- 
ond Alexander,  began  the  heyday  of  the  Russian 
Haskalah,  what  has  been  denominated  the  "Gold- 
en Era"  of  Jewish  history  and  Hebraic  culture  in 
that  country.  The  entire  magnitude  of  the  moral 


RUSSIA  145 

and  spiritual  vitality  of  the  Russian  Jew  can  be 
gauged  from  the  circumstance  that  a  slight  change 
for  the  better  in  an  otherwise  intolerable  situa- 
tion, his  entrance  upon  a  state  of  freedom  in  itself 
but  of  the  meagerest  and  most  precarious  kind, 
was  sufficient  to  radically  transform  his  life,  suf- 
fuse his  horizon  with  golden  hopes  and  noble  as- 
pirations, and  enable  him  to  produce  within  a  few 
short  decades  a  virile  and  progressive  press  and 
literature  in  both  Hebrew  and  Yiddish,  many  of 
whose  masters  have  since  been  translated  into  the 
leading  European  tongues  and  have  won  recog- 
nition and  fame  in  the  outside  world.  The 
achievements  of  the  Jew  in  Russian  literature,  of 
which  mention  has  already  been  made,  are  poor 
indeed  compared  with  his  success  in  the  domain 
of  Hebrew.  It  should  here  be  stated  that  there 
had  been  no  premeditated  intention  on  the  part  of 
the  Maskilim  of  this  or  the  preceding  reign  to 
perpetuate  the  Hebrew  language  as  a  literary 
medium.  Hebrew  was  resorted  to  in  the  writing 
of  books,  as  in  business  and  personal  correspond- 
ence, as  the  only  natural  vehicle  for  a  people 
reared  on  the  Talmud  and  the  Bible  and  too  con- 
temptuous of  the  barbaric  Judaeo-German  jargon 
to  use  it  for  literary  purposes.  Throughout  the 
centuries  of  exile,  Hebrew  had  been  the  main 
form  of  expression  for  the  rabbis  and  scholars 
who  wrote  in  it  their  rabbinical  and  philosophical 
treatises;  as  the  language  of  prayer,  of  the  Scrip- 
tures and  of  much  of  the  Talmud  literature,  it 
was  deemed  too  sacred  for  any  other  literary  use. 
Now,  however,  a  great  secular  literature  was  to 
arise  in  this  tongue,  and  the  Lashon  ha-Kodesh 
was  to  be  applied  for  writing  on  profane 
themes,  Hebrew  poems  and  Hebrew  novels  were 
to  appear  side  by  side  with  Hebrew  treatises  on 
historical,  philological  and  other  scientific  sub- 


146  HISTORY    OF   THE   JEWS 

jects.  Herein  Russian  Jewry  was  to  be  more  for- 
tunate than  German  Jewry  with  whom  the  use  of 
the  Hebrew  was  discontinued  early  in  the  nine- 
teenth century,  it  serving  merely  as  an  aid  to, 
and  a  means  of,  transition  to  German  culture. 
The  enforced  isolation  and  voluntary  seclusion  of 
the  Jews  in  Russia,  their  ignorance  of  and  con- 
tempt for  the  language  of  their  Slavic  taskmas- 
ters, have  made  possible  the  retention  of  the  He- 
brew not  merely  in  the  synagogue  but  in  their 
everyday  life.  The  persecutions  of  the  Jews  in 
Russia  have  resulted  in  some  great  good,  after 
all.  They  have  made  possible  this  one  great  and 
distinct  contribution  to  the  spiritual  treasure- 
house  of  Israel:  the  Modern  Hebrew  Literature. 
In  the  reign  of  Alexander  II  this  literature  was 
still  in  the  main  the  natural  and  unconscious  prod- 
uct of  the  Maskilim  who  resorted  to  the  Hebrew 
as  the  best  means  for  spreading  enlightenment 
among  the  masses.  Its  history  is  closely  related 
to  that  of  the  Hebrew  press.  Here,  too,  the  Rus- 
sian Maskilim  were,  at  first,  only  imitators  of 
their  German  colleagues,  since  the  first  Hebrew 
periodical  worthy  the  name  was  the  Koenigsberg 
"Ha-Meassef,"  already  referred  to,  and  those  fol- 
lowing it,  like  the  "Bikkure  ha-Ittim,"  "Kerem 
Hemed,"  "Ozar  Nehmad,"  "He-Haluz,"  "Kokhebe 
Yizhak,"  etc.,  were  all  published  either  in  Austria 
or  Galicia.  It  was  not -until  1856,  more  than  sev- 
enty years  after  the  founding  of  the  "Ha-Meas- 
sef,"  that  Eliezer  Lipman  Silberman  (1819-1882), 
a  German  by  birth  though  of  Russian  parentage 
and  schooling,  began  the  publication  of  the  first 
regular  Hebrew  weekly,  the  "Ha-Maggid,"  in  the 
Prussian  city  of  Lyck,  as  such  being  the  father  of 
modern  Hebrew  journalism.  While  published  in 
Germany,  the  "Ha-Maggid"  was  really  intended 
for  the  now  large  and  ever  growing  circle  of  He- 


HAYIM    SELIG   SLONIMSKI 
(1810-1904) 


RUSSIA  147 

brew  readers  in  Russia,  German  Jewry  with  very 
few  exceptions  no  longer  feeling  a  need  for  a  He- 
brew publication.  The  Western  Jewish  He- 
braists, like  Samuel  David  Luzzatto  of  Padua, 
Joseph  Halevy  of  Paris,  and  more  espe- 
cially the  Galician  masters,  Rapoport,  Er- 
ter,  Schor  and  others,  resorted  to  its  col- 
umns occasionally,  but  it  was  the  Russian 
Hebraists  who  made  the  greatest  use  of  it  for 
their  literary  training,  some  of  them  like  Abramo- 
vich,  Gordon  and  Lilienblum  being  destined  to 
become  the  leading  literateurs  of  their  day.  The 
Ha-Maggid  was  the  first  Hebrew  paper  to  print 
articles  on  national  and  international  politics  and 
its  Jewish  and  general  news  features  lent  it  a 
more  than  ordinary  interest  and  endeared  it  to  its 
readers.  Under  the  guidance  of  its  literary  ed- 
itor, David  Gordon  (Podmerecz,  Vilna,  i826-Lyck, 
Prussia,  1886),  it  in  later  years  became  the  advo- 
cate of  Palestinian  colonization  and  thus  the  fore- 
runner of  modern  Zionism.  With  the  relaxation 
of  the  rigorous  press-laws,  the  Russian  Hebraists 
were  enabled  to  start  journals  of  their  own  and 
before  long  many  a  large  Jewish  centre  was  to 
have  its  Hebrew  organ.  In  1860  Fuenn  founded 
his  "Ha-Karmel"  in  Vilna  which  from  a  weekly 
with  supplements  in  Russian  and  German,  be- 
came, eleven  years  later,  a  monthly,  while  Alex- 
ander Zederbaum  (Samoscz,  Lublin,  i8i6-St 
Petersburg,  1893)  'm  that  same  year  started  in 
Odessa  his  "Ha-Meliz,"  later  removing  it  to  St. 
Petersburg.  In  1872  Hayim  Selig  Slonimsky 
(Byelostok,  1810- Warsaw,  1904),  scientist,  math- 
ematician and  inventor,  established  his  "Ha-Ze- 
firah"  first  in  Berlin  and  shortly  thereafter  in  War- 
saw. Both  the  "Ha-Meliz"  and  "Ha-Zefirah"  be- 
came dailies  in  the  reign  of  Alexander  III,  and  in 
various  ways  exercised  the  greatest  influence  on 


HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

the  Russian  Hebraists.  Abraham  Bacr  Gottlober 
(Starokonstantinov,  Volhynia,  i8n-Byelostok, 
1899)  transferred  his  Hebrew  monthly  "Ha-Boker 
Or"  from  Lemberg  to  Warsaw,  while  Smolenskin's 
"Ha-Shahar,"  though  printed  in  Vienna  (1868- 
1884),  found  nearly  all  of  its  readers  in  Russia 
and  did  more  than  any  other  publication  to  de- 
velop the  talents  of  most  of  the  best  known  He- 
brew writers  of  the  eighties  and  nineties.  Grad- 
ually this  Hebrew  press  developed  a  sense  of  re- 
sponsible public-opinion  among  its  readers,  the 
mere  theoretical  and  academic  discussion  giving 
way  before  the  utilitarian  article  on  practical  mat- 
ters. Haskalah  was  still  the  shibboleth  of  the  in- 
itiated few  but  it  was  assuming  more  and  more  a 
decidedly  Jewish  and  nationalistic  aspect,  prepar- 
ing the  way  for  the  great  national  reawakening 
which  was  to  follow  the  anti-Jewish  riots  of  1881. 
It  was,  however,  in  the  aid  and  impetus  it  gave 
to  the  upbuilding  of  a  rich  and  many-sided  He- 
brew literature  that  this  press  of  the  period  in 
question  attained  its  greatest  usefulness. 

This  literature,  in  its  polite  form,  was  strongly 
reflective  of  the  life  and  tendencies  of  the  Jews  of 
the  "Pale,"  and  therein  lies  its  greatest  interest 
for  the  student  of  Russo-Jewish  history.  The  au- 
tobiographical "Hatot  Neurim"  (Youthful  Sins) 
of  Moses  Loeb  Lilienblum  (Kaidany,  Kovno, 
i843-Odessa,  1910)  is  of  transcending  interest  to 
us  not  so  much  on  account  of  its  literary  form 
which  is  simple  and  unadorned,  but  as  a  most  val- 
uable contribution  to  the  Kulturgeschichte  of  Rus- 
sian Jewry,  strongly  reminding  us  of  Rousseau's 
"Confessions."  The  author  is  himself  a  sad  com- 
mentary on  the  aimlessness  of  the  Haskalah  in 
Russia,  its  disastrous  results  in  removing  the  re- 
ligious prop  from  under  a  people  suspended  in  the 
air  and  subject  to  the  whim  and  fancy  of  every  pet- 


RUSSIA  149 

ty  tyrant,  at  a  time  when  a  taste  from  the  fruit  of 
the  tree  of  knowledge  can  only  open  his  eyes  to 
his  deep-seated  misery  without  furnishing  the 
needed  cure.  "I  am  a  Talmudist,"  he  says  in  the 
introduction  of  his  book,  "once  a  believer  but  now 
a  sceptic,  rejecting  all  the  sweet  dreams  and  de- 
lightful hopes  bequeathed  to  me  by  my  fathers." 
There  is  an  ever-present  void  in  his  heart  which 
nothing  can  fill,  not  even  his  academic  studies 
which  he  pursues  at  the  cost  of  much  want  and 
hardship.  In  Odessa,  the  great  Mecca  of  the 
Maskilim,  he  soon  learns  that  Haskalah,  too,  is 
not  flawless,  that  they  who  uphold  it  and  speak 
grandiloquently  in  its  name  are  no  better  than 
the  fanatical  orthodox  and  morally  are  even  their 
inferiors.  Materialism  has  with  them  been  substi- 
tuted for  the  superstitions  of  their  fathers,  and 
where  the  latter  were  in  many  ways  idealistic, 
with  the  former  sentiment  has  all  but  departed 
from  their  lives.  His  secular  studies  fail  to  give 
him  .the  life-content  he  was  seeking,  and  the  bal- 
ance sheet  of  the  more  than  thirty  years  of  his 
life  shows  but  a  cipher.  Unhappily  for  Russian 
Jewry,  there  were  not  many  like  Lilienblum  to 
become  aware  in  time  of  the  futility  and  hope- 
lessness of  the  Haskalah  in  its  Russian  sphere, 
the  great  majority  of  them  remaining  quite  con- 
tent with  the  vain  glamour  which  it  lent  them  and 
the  few  material  husks  it  threw  in  their  path. 
The  full  awakening  was  to  come  only  with  the  de- 
parture of  the  delusion  of  an  eventual  Jewish 
emancipation  inspired  by  the  quasi-progressive 
regime  of  Alexander  II. 

In  a  like  vein  are  the  writings  of  nearly  all  of 
the  writers  of  this  period,  though  most  of  them 
still  behold  the  mote  in  the  eyes  of  Orthodoxy 
before  they  perceive  the  beam  in  the  eyes  of  the 
pseudo-enlightenment  for  which  they  were  bat- 


I5O  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

tling.  With  the  possible  exception  of  Micah  Jo- 
seph Lebensohn  (1828-1852)  the  romantico-lyrical 
poet,  probably  the  first  truly  great  poet  since  Je- 
hudah  Halevi,  who  cultivated  poetry  as  an  art  in 
itself,  and  drew  his  inspiration  from  ancient  Jew- 
ish and  general  history  in  his  "Shire  Bat  Ziyyon" 
(The  Songs  of  the  Daughter  of  Zion),  "Kinnor 
Bat-Ziyyon"  (Tha  Harp  of  the  Daughter  of  Zion) 
and  other  works,  and  Abraham  Mapu,  the  re- 
nowned novelist,  all  the  other  noteworthy  writers 
of  the  day  wrote  either  panegyrics  on  an  abstract 
Haskalah,  or  attacks  upon  the  homely  customs 
and  mannerisms,  the  bigotry  and  superstition  of 
the  Ghetto.  Had  the  younger  Lebensohn  been 
permitted  to  live  longer,  he  might  have  exercised 
a  more  healthy  influence  over  his  colleagues.  Un- 
fortunately he  died  when  but  twenty-four  years  of 
age,  his  literary  work  scarcely  begun,  and  leaving 
in  the  few  poems  he  wrote  but  the  promise  of  the 
wonderful  talent  then  at  the  beginning  of  its  un- 
foldment.  Abraham  Mapu  (Kovno,  i8o8-Koen- 
igsberg,  1867),  the  father  of  the  modern  Hebrew 
novel,  began  as  a  romanticist  with  his  classically 
conceived  and  executed  "Ahabat  Ziyyon"  (Love  of 
Zion,  published  in  1853)  and  his  more  ambitious 
though  less  successful  "Ashmat  Shomeron"  (The 
Guilt  of  Samaria,  published  in  1865),  both  of 
which  are  taken  from  ancient  Hebrew  life  in  Pal- 
estine though  their  plots  are  borrowed  from 
French  models.  He,  too,  however,  could  not  long 
resist  the  temptation  of  joining  the  firing  line 
against  the  fanatical  obscurants,  and  his  most 
voluminous  novel  "Ayit  Zabua"  (The  Hypocrite), 
in  five  parts,  the  first  of  which  appeared  in  1860, 
is  a  bitterly  realistic  presentation  of  the  arrested 
[ewish  life  of  the  "Pale."  A  like  attempt  at  real- 
ism in  the  fight  against  ultra-Orthodoxy,  though 
greatly  inferior  to  Mapu's  work  artistically,  is  the 


MICAH  JOSEPH   LEBENSOHN 
(1828-1852) 


RUSSIA  151 

"Ha-Abot  ve-ha-Banim"  (Fathers  and  Sons,  pub- 
lished 1868)  by  the  then  young  but  highly  prom- 
ising Shalom  Jacob  Abramovich  (Kopul,  Minsk, 
l.835-Odessa,  1917)  destined  some  years  later  to 
secure  an  immortal  place  as  the  greatest  and  most 
creative  of  Yiddish  story  writers.  This  novel, 
however,  gives  but  a  faint  indication  of  the  fu- 
ture prominence  of  its  author,  and  even  as  a 
polemical  work  against  Orthodoxy  is  of  little  con- 
sequence. So,  too,  were  the  short  prose  sketches 
of  J.  L.  Gordon  which  pale  into  utter  obscurity  by 
the  side  of  his  great  poems.  The  real  great  novel 
of  the  period  was  not  to  appear  until  1876  when 
Reuben  Asher  Braudes  (Vilna,  1851 -Vienna, 
1902)  began  the  serial  publication  of  his  "Ha-Dat 
ve-ha-Hayyim"  (Religion  and  Life)  and  attempted 
in  its  three  volumes  to  do  in  fiction  what  Lilien- 
blum,  after  whom  the  hero  of  his  book  is  mod- 
elled, did  in  his  scholarly  treatise  "Orhot  ha-Tal- 
mud"  (The  Paths  of  the  Talmud),  namely,  to 
plead  for  religious  reforms.  To  the  same  class  of 
writers  belongs  also  Mordecai  David  Brandstad- 
ter  (b.  Brzesko,  Galicia,  1844)  who,  though  not  a 
native  Russian  is  nevertheless  a  distinct  product 
of  the  Russian  Haskalah,  having  come  under  the 
influence  of  Smolenskin  in  whose  "Ha-Shahar"  he 
first  began  to  write  his  fine  sketches  of  Hassidic 
life,  made  all  the  more  impressive  by  their  thinly- 
disguised  humor.  While  their  setting  is  Galicia, 
their  arrows  are  really  aimed  at  Russia  where 
indeed  they  have  had  their  greatest  effect,  as  such 
reminding  us  of  Joseph  Perl's  great  satire  "Megal- 
leh  Temirin"  (The  Revealer  of  Hidden  Things) 
which  while  written  in  and  for  Galicia  produced 
its  greatest  impression  in  Russia. 

The  most  prominent  writer  of  this  period,  how- 
ever, is  Judah  Loeb  Gordon  (Vilna,  1831-81.  Pe- 
tersburg, 1892),  like  so  many  of  Russia's  He- 


152  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

braists  a  product  of  the  Yilna  school  which  he 
was  to  surpass  in  the  ambition  of  his  literary 
work  as  in  the  progressivity  of  his  thoughts.  An 
erudite  Talmudist,  possessing  a  scientific  knowl- 
edge of  Hebrew  and  kindred  languages,  he  be- 
came an  auto-didact  in  the  modern  as  well  as  the 
classical  languages  under  the  incentive  furnished 
him  by  his  life-long  friend  and  relative  Wolf 
Kaplan,  himself  a  noted  Maskil  and  later  the 
father-in-law  of  Gordon's  daughter.  His  poetic 
vein  revealed  itself  early  and  under  the  influence 
of  his  friend,  the  younger  Lebensohn,  Gordon, 
too,  became  inclined  to  romanticism,  taking  his 
themes  from  either  the  ancient  Jewish  world  as  in 
"Ahavat  David  u-Mikhal"  (The  Love  of  David 
and  Mikhal),  "Milhamot  David  ba-Pelishtim" 
(David's  Wars  Against  the  Philistines),  his  pas- 
toral "David  u-Barzilai"  (David  and  Barzilai), 
"Asenat  Bat-Potipherah"  (Asenat,  the  Daughter 
of  Potipherah),  "Zidkiyahu  be-Bet  ha-Pekudot" 
(Zedekiah  In  Prison),  or  from  mediaeval  Jewish 
history  as  in  his  "Bi-Mezulot  Yam"  (In  the 
Depths  of  the  Sea),  describing  a  fearful  epi- 
sode of  the  Jewish  expulsion  from  Spain 
(1492).  Most  of  his  poems,  however,  es- 
pecially his  cycle  of  "Present  Day  Epics," 
are  devoted  to  mirroring  Jewish  life  in  Russia 
in  his  day,  as  in  his  "Kozo  Shel  Yod"  (The  Dot 
of  a  Yod),  "Shomeret  Yabam"  (Waiting  for  a 
Brother-in-Law),  "A-sakka  de-Rispak"  (Because 
of  a  Wagon's  Axle),  "Ve-Samahta  be-Haggekha" 
(Rejoice  on  Thy  Festival).  Even  his  epics  from 
ancient  life  are  frequently  directed  against  the 
evil  conditions  of  the  Jewry  of  his  day,  Gordon 
using  the  immediate  theme  from  ancient  history 
as  but  a  peg  upon  which  to  hang  his  strictures  on 
the  customs  and  usages  of  the  present.  Stitching 
together  many  of  his  bitter  utterances  in  a  num- 


JUDAH  LEIB  GORDON 
(1830-1892) 


RUSSIA  153 

ber  of  his  poems,  we  obtain  a  most  melancholy 
picture  of  the  life  led  by  the  submerged  of  the 
Russian  ghetto.  The  lack  of  worldliness  and  the 
demoralization  within  the  Jewish  camp  he  imputes 
to  the  old-fashioned  rabbis  who  neglected  to  train 
their  flocks  in  the  useful  and  practical  ways  of 
life  but  instead  taught: 

"Within  thy  walls  to  be  immured, 
To  row  against  life's  vital  stream ; 
Alive  in  Heaven,  dead  on  earth ; 
In  dream  to  talk — awake  to  dream."* 

Jewish  youths  are  immolating  themselves  upon 
the  altar  of  Talmudic  study,  frittering  their  lives 
away  without  aim  or  purpose: 

"Upon  the  ways  to  Jewish  schools  that  lead, 
Behold  poor  youngsters  hastening  with  all  speed 

"And  what  awaits  them  there?    A  life  of  need 

And  misery,  the  cold,  bare  floor  their  bed 

S.uch  is  the  Law — and  what  if  one  fall  dead!"1 

And  as  for  the  woman  in  Israel: 

"Eternal  bondage  is  the  Jewess's  life: 
Her  shop  she  tends  incessant  day  by  day; 
A  mother  she — she  nurses  and  she  weans, 
And  bakes  and  cooks  and  quickly  fades  away.'" 

It  is  all  because  of  the  spiritual  bondage  of  the 
masses : 


*  In  "Ben  Shinne  Arayot"  (Between  the  Lions'  Teeth),  transla- 
tion of  A.  B.  Rhine.  See  his  "Leon  Gordon,  An  Appreciation,"  Phil- 
adelphia, 1910,  p.  121. 

"'Shne  Yosef  Ben  Shimon"    (The  Two  Josephs   Ben   Simon), 
Rhine's  translations,  1.  c.  p.  139. 
"Kozo  Shel  Yod,"  Rhine,  1.  c.  p.  124. 


154  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

"We  have  been  slaves  ?  alas !     What  are  we  now  ? 
Do  we  not  fall  and  sink,  year  in,  year  out? 
Are  we  not  fettered  still,  are  we  not  bound 
By  superstition's  shackles  strong  and  stout?"* 

But  like  Lilienblum  and  many  others  Gordon, 
too,  was  destined  to  bitter  disappointment.  Has- 
kalah  was  bankrupt;  it  de-Judaized  the  Jew  with- 
out securing  for  him  the  coveted  and  long-looked- 
for  emancipation.  After  a  period  of  comparative 
liberalism,  a  spirit  of  reaction  was  once  again 
manifesting  itself  in  government  circles,  and  in- 
stead of  enlarging  their  privileges  the  Jews  had 
cause  to  fear  for  the  few  liberties  they  were  en- 
joying. A  melancholy  note  is  henceforth  to  dom- 
inate his  poems: 

"No  more  my  joyous  strains  shall  ring; 

Of  freedom,  light,  I  must  despair 

Eternal  servitude  I  sing, 

I  dream  disgrace,  polluted  air. 
The  rhymes  which  from  my  pen-point  flow 
Are  tear-drops  for  my  nation's  woe."4 

And  worst  of  all  his  fears  is  the  one  that  the 
labors  of  himself  and  those  like  him  are  all  for 
naught,  that  where  the  old  and  waning  generation 
is  too  callous  to  be  affected  by  the  preachment, 
the  new  and  budding  generation  cannot  even  be 
reached  to  preach  to: 

With  rapid  strides  they  rush  ahead, 
And  who  can  tell  how  long,  how  far? 
Perchance  whence  there  is  no  return.     .     .     . 
Alas !  who  can  divine,  who  can  assure 
That  I  am  not  the  last  of  Zion's  bards, 
That  you  who  read  are  not  the  last  to  read?* 


*  "Asakka  de-Rispak,"  Rhine,  1.  c.  p.  130. 

4"Ba-alot  ha-Shahar,"  Rhine's  translation,  1.  c.  pp.  150,  151. 

*"Lemi  Ani  Amel?"  Rhine's  translation,  1.  c.  p.  148. 


RUSSIA  155 

Gordon's  pessimism  was  so  overmastering1  as  to 
blind  him  from  seeing  what  others  of  his  contem- 
poraries beheld  very  clearly,  the  certain,  if  as  yet 
faint,  rays  of  hope  and  reassurance  upon  the  Jew- 
ish horizon.  The  ideal  of  Jewish  nationalism,  as 
yet  embryonic,  was  soon  to  strike  deep  root  in  the 
hearts  of  the  masses  and  to  grow  to  considerable 
proportions.  Gordon,  however,  remained  aloof 
from  it  and  shared  but  little  in  the  dream  of  a 
national  rehabilitation  in  Zion. 

Nor  was  he  alone  among  the  Maskilim  who 
were  slow  to  appreciate  the  real  merits  of  the  lib- 
eralism of  Alexander  and  its  ultimate  conse- 
quences for  the  Jews.  The  glamour  of  freedom 
and  equality  coming  in  the  wake  of  a  regime  so 
auspiciously  begun  had  cast  a  spell  upon  the  now 
considerable  number  of  enlightened  ones  not  easily 
to  be  broken.  If  secular  education  was  the  key 
that  would  unlock  the  door  to  complete  emanci- 
pation, the  Jews  were  determined  to  secure  it,  and 
not  only  did  it  become  the  great  objective  of  indi- 
viduals, but  organized  efforts  were  again  and 
again  put  forth  to  spread  enlightenment  among 
the  masses.  Chief  among  all  such  organizations 
was  the  "Hebrat  Marbe  Haskalah,"  the  "Society 
for  the  Promotion  of  Enlightenment  in  Russian 
Jewry,"  with  headquarters  at  St.  Petersburg,  at 
the  head  of  which  stood  the  most  prominent  Jews 
of  Russia,  like  the  Barons  Guenzburg  of  St.  Pe- 
tersburg, and  the  Brodskys  of  Kiev,  and  the  sec- 
retary and  treasurer  of  which  was  the  noted 
financier  and  philanthropist  Leon  Rosenthal 
(1817-1887).  True  to  its  purpose,  this  society 
spread  culture  by  all  available  methods  and  means, 
it  subventioned  schools  and  periodicals,  helped 
poor  authors  toward  the  publication  of  their 
works  and  gave  stipends  to  indigent  Jewish  stu- 
dents at  the  universities.  Many  a  prominent  au- 


156  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

thor  or  scientist  in  Russia  owes  his  start  in  life 
to  the  generosity  of  this  organization.  At  its  in- 
stance several  parts  of  the  Bible  as  well  as  por- 
tions of  the  prayer-book  and  the  Haggadah  were 
translated  into  Russian  for  the  benefit  of  those 
unacquainted  with  the  Hebrew.  It  endowed  an 
agricultural  school  for  Jewish  boys  (1880)  and 
aided  many  a  community  in  the  "Pale"  in  the 
founding  of  libraries  and  evening  schools  for 
adults.  By  leaps  and  bounds  the  Russo-Jewish 
youth  reached  out  for  the  tree  of  knowledge,  by 
natural  ability  and  unflagging  diligence  soon  sur- 
passing their  Christian  fellow-students  in  all 
branches  of  learning.  Russification  grew  apace, 
and  before  long  these  sons  and  daughters  of  ultra- 
orthodox  parents  many  of  whom  were  unable  even 
to  speak  the  Russian,  felt  themselves  so  complete- 
ly assimilated  as  to  regard  themselves  as  an  inte- 
gral part  of  the  Russian  nation.  Political  equal- 
ity, however,  failed  to  materialize,  and  disillusion- 
ment soon  gave  way  to  despair.  Inasmuch  as  Ju- 
daism alone  stood  between  them  and  emancipation, 
untold  numbers  rushed  to  the  baptismal  font  as 
the  only  safe  means  of  securing  relief  on  earth 
be  it  even  at  the  cost  of  salvation  in  heaven. 
Some  of  them  indulged  in  all  sorts  of  fads  and 
vagaries  to  appease  a  spiritual  hunger  only  whet- 
ted but  never  satisfied.  Jacob  Gordin,  who  later 
became  the  foremost  Yiddish  playwright  in  Amer- 
ica, founded  in  1879,  in  Yelisavetgrad,  the  "Spir- 
itual Bible  Brotherhood,"  which  aimed  at  the 
cementing  of  the  ties  of  brotherhood  among  men 
by  a  cultivation  of  the  ethical  spirit  of  the  Bible 
and  the  abolition  of  all  ritualistic  forms  which 
Gordin  and  his  colleagues  regarded  as  the  great- 
est obstacle  to  a  true  understanding  between  races 
and  nations.  Deistic  rationalism  alone,  they  be- 
lieved, was  to  save  the  world  for  peace  and  fra- 


RUSSIA  157 

tejnity.  Others,  again,  went  further  still,  and  like 
Jacob  Prelooker  of  Odessa  and  Joseph  Rabbino- 
vich  of  Kishinev,  organized  societies  which,  while 
seeking  to  promote  a  spirit  of  mutual  sympathy 
and  fellow-feeling  between  Jews  and  Gentiles,  in 
reality,  if  not  intentionally,  acted  as  intermedi- 
aries for  Christianity  and  prepared  the  way  for 
Jewish  conversions  en  masse  to  either  the  Greek- 
Catholic  or  the  Lutheran  faith.  Rabbinovich 
himself  followed  his  teachings  to  their  logical  con- 
clusion, and  the  one-time  Hassid,  Talmudist  and 
Hebrew  writer,  converted  to  Christianity  in  1885. 
The  greatest  menace  to  the  Jews,  however,  arose 
from  the  political  unrest  which,  never  quite  sup- 
pressed in  Russia  since  the  Decembrist  revolution 
(1825),  seized  hold  of  the  Jewish  youth  who 
threw  themselves  into  the  Nihilist  movement,  were 
the  most  ardent  supporters  of  the  Narodnaya 
Volya  (Freedom  of  the  People)  party,  and  be- 
came the  active  agents  of  revolutionary  propa- 
ganda by  mingling  with  the  peasants  and  the  la- 
borers, sharing  their  humble  life  and  imparting  to 
them  forbidden  doctrines  through  the  spoken  or 
written  word.  No  one  was  more  appreciative  of 
the  liberal  teachings  of  Russia's  great  literary 
masters,  Chernishevsky,  Pisarev,  and  Bielinsky, 
nor  more  ready  to  act  upon  them,  than  the  Russo- 
Jewish  youth  of  this  period,  and  in  the  great 
struggle  against  the  autocracy,  Jews  furnished  not 
only  the  brains  but  the  martyrs  of  the  movement. 
This  was  inevitable  in  view  of  the  bitter  disap- 
pointment of  these  enlightened  young  people  in 
an  imperial  regime  that  began  with  so  much 
promise  for  the  liberation  and  occidentalization  of 
Russia,  including  the  emancipation  of  her  Jews. 
For  the  Jewish  race,  however,  this  revolutionary 
activity  was  to  result  in  untold  suffering  not  only 
in  the  last  decade  of  Alexander  II,  but  throughout; 


158  HISTORY    OF    THE   JEWS 

the  reigns  of  the  two  monarchs  who  succeeded 
him.  Jacob  S.  Raisin,  in  his  book  on  "The  Has- 
kalah  Movement  in  Russia,"  thus  sums  up  this  de-. 
nouement  of  the  tragic  situation  in  the  closing 
years  of  Alexander  II: 

.  .  .  The  gyves  of  tradition  were  at  last 
removed.  The  Maskilim  of  the  'forties'  and 
'fifties'  were  antiquated  in  the  'sixties'  and  'sev- 
enties.' They  began  to  see  that  the  fears  of  the 
orthodox  and  their  denunciations  of  Haskalah 
were  not  altogether  unfounded.  A  young  gener- 
ation had  grown  up  \vho  had  never  experienced 
the  strife  and  struggles  of  the  fathers,  and  who 
lacked  the  submissive  temper  that  had  character- 
ized their  ancestors.  Faster  and  farther  they 
rushed  on  their  headlong  way  to  destruction, 
while  their  parents  sat  and  wept.  .  .  .  The 
foundations,  of  religion  were  undermined.  Pa- 
rental authority  was  disregarded.  Youths  and 
maidens  were  lured  by  the  enchanting  voice  of  the 
siren  of  assimilation.  The  naive  words  which 
Turgenieff  put  into  the  mouth  of  Samuel  Abra- 
ham, the  Lithuanian  Jew,  might  have  been,  indeed 
were,  spoken  by  many  others  in  actual  life.  'Our 
children,'  he  complains,  'have  no  longer  our  be- 
liefs; they  do  not  say  our  prayers,  nor  have  they 
your  beliefs;  no  more  do  they  say  your  prayers; 
they  do  not  pray  at  all,  and  they  believe  in 
nothing.'  The  struggle  between  Hassidim  and 
Mitnaggedim  ended  with  the  conversionist  policy 
of  Nicholas  I,  which  united  them  against  the 
Maskilim.  The  struggle  between  those  anti-Mas- 
kilim  and  the  Maskilim  had  ceased  in  the  golden 
days  of  Alexander  II.  But  the  clouds  were  gath- 
ering and  overspreading  the  camp  of  Haskalah. 
The  days  in  which  the  seekers  after  light  united 
in  one  common  aim  were  gone.  Russification,  as- 


RUSSIA  1 59 

similation,  universalism  and  nihilism  rent  asunder 
the  ties  that  held  them  together." 

Frightened  and  bewildered  by  the  growth  of 
the  revolutionary  movement,  Alexander  II  now 
rued  even  the  modicum  of  liberty  he  had  granted 
to  his  subjects,  and  sought  to  undo  in  his  last 
years  whatever  good  his  reforms  had  effected  in 
the  first  years  of  his  reign.  In  tightening  the 
screws  of  reaction  upon  the  nation,  the  Jews  were 
the  first  to  feel  the  effect  of  his  monarchical  dis- 
pleasure. The  educational  work  performed  among 
the  Jewish  masses  by  the  "Society  for  the  pro- 
motion of  Enlightenment"  was  repressed  to  the 
extent  of  abolishing  the  Sabbath-  and  evening- 
schools  it  had  maintained  in  the  various  cities  and 
towns  of  the  "Pale."  The  Yilna  and  Zhitomir 
rabbinical  seminaries  were  closed  in  1873,  abolish- 
ing with  them  whatever  little  influence  for  good 
there  emanated  from  institutions  which  had 
proven,  in  the  main,  a  snare  and  delusion  to  Jew- 
ish cultural  aspirations.  Sensing  the  new  spirit 
of  bigotry  abroad  in  the  land,  the  forces  of  dark- 
ness that  neither  slumbered  nor  slept  in  the  em- 
pire now  organized  their  strength  for  anti-Jewish 
demonstrations,  and  in  1871  Odessa  saw  the  first 
massacres  of  Jews,  a  prelude  to  the  many  and 
more  terrible  pogroms  that  \vere  to  follow.  Jews 
were  denied  the  right  to  improve  their  condition 
by  opening  eleemosynary  institutions  and  trade 
schools,  while  in  1879  the  government  ordered  the 
famous  Yeshibah  at  Yolozhin  to  be  closed. 
Worst  of  all,  the  spectre  of  the  ritual-blood  accu- 
sation which  in  Russia  is  always  conjured  up 
when  the  anti-Jewish  agitation  is  at  its  height, 
again  made  its  appearance,  this  time  at  Kutais, 
Trans-Caucasia.  In  its  designs  against  the  Jews 
the  government  not  infrequently  sought  and  ob- 
tained the  aid  of  the  many  Jewish  renegades  who, 


l6o  HISTORY    OF    THE   JEWS 

upon  the  expectation  of  material  reward,  were 
ready  to  turn  informers  against  their  former  co- 
religionists. A  striking  illustration  of  such  in- 
famy was  furnished  by  Jacob  Brafmann  who  em- 
braced Christianity  as  a  commercial  venture  after 
having  failed  in  every  one  of  his  numerous  under- 
takings. As  a  reward  for  his  baptism  he  was  ap- 
pointed professor  of  Hebrew  at  the  seminary  of 
Minsk,  the  Holy  Synod  at  the  same  time  enlisting 
him  among  its  agents  for  the  propagation  of 
Christianity  among  the  Jews.  Brafmann  at  once 
seized  upon  the  occasion  to  render  himself  immor- 
tal by  undertaking  a  series  of  attacks  upon  the 
Jews  in  the  Russian  press.  In  a  number  of  slan- 
derous articles  in  the  "Vilenski  Vyestnik"  during 
1867  he  claimed  that  the  Jews  of  Western  Russia 
were  united  into  a  guild  with  unlimited  means  at 
its  disposal  for  the  one  purpose  of  exploiting  their 
non-Jewish  neighbors.  Two  years  later  he  en- 
larged on  these  falsehoods  in  a  book  entitled 
"Kniga  Kahala"  (The  Book  of  the  Kahal)  in 
which  he  purported  to  expose  the  secrets  of  the 
Kahal  which  he  claimed  was  still  clandestinely  in 
existence  despite  its  abolition  by  Nicholas  I 
(1844),  and  by  means  of  forged  and  fabricated 
documents  "proved"  that  the  Jews  were  practicing 
illegality  and  immorality  upon  the  authority  of  Ju- 
daism (Vilna,  1869).  The  appearance  of  the  work 
created  a  great  sensation  among  Christians  and 
much  anxiety  among  the  Jews.  Lutostansky,  des- 
tined to  play  an  even  more  ignoble  part  a  genera- 
tion later  in  the  Beilis  ritual-murder  accusation, 
then  made  his  debut  pouring  out  a  vial  of  abuse 
upon  the  Jews  and  their  religion.  Lending  cred- 
ence to  these  accusations  Governor-General  Kauf- 
mann  called  together  a  conference  of  leading  Jews 
and  Gentiles  in  Vilna  (1871)  to  probe  at  the  bot- 
tom of  these  "mysteries"  of  the  Jews,  and  Jacob 


RUSSIA  l6l 

Barit  of  Vilna  successfully  defended  his  people  by 
demonstrating  the  falsity  of  the  charges.  Sim- 
ilar defences  were  undertaken  by  Shershevski, 
Orshanski,  and  others.  The  impression,  however, 
had  already  been  formed  in  the  leading  spheres 
that  the  Jews  were  a  menacing  and,  at  best,  an 
unreliable  element  in  the  empire,  and  the  govern- 
ment did  nothing  to  remove  the  stigma  thus  placed 
on  them. 

At  last,  on  March  13,  1881,  Alexander  II  was 
felled  by  the  hand  of  a  nihilist  assassin,  a  victim 
alike  of  the  revolutionary  movement  he  had  sought 
to  suppress  and  of  the  bureaucracy  which  thwart- 
ed all  his  efforts  at  reform  and  brought  about  the 
reaction  of  his  later  years.  Like  his  uncle  and 
predecessor  of  the  same  name  he,  too,  began  well 
but  ended  badly,  his  courage  and  will-power  fail- 
ing him  before  yet  he  was  half-way  on  the  road 
to  his  people's  liberation.  "He  had  loosened  its 
chains,"  says  Professor  Friedlaender,  "but  he  re- 
fused to  remove  them,  and  the  Russian  giant,  tan- 
talized by  half-measures,  brandished  his  fetters 
and  felled  the  man  who  had  loosened  them." 

But  the  removal  of  Alexander  II  was  only  to 
let  loose  all  of  the  hosts  of  religious  bigotry  and 
class-hatred  which  during  his  reign  had  been  kept 
more  or  less  in  leash.  The  reign  of  the  next  two 
czars,  down  to  March,  1917,  is  for  Russia  as  a 
whole  and  for  the  Jews  in  particular,  one  endless- 
ly hideous  nightmare  of  political  oppression,  civic 
outlawry,  rioting  and  bloodshed.  Whatever  of 
liberalism  had  found  its  way  into  the  empire  dur- 
ing the  regime  of  the  "Czar-Liberator"  was  now  to 
be  rooted  out  with  the  sword  of  frightfulness. 
Occidentalism  was  thrown  to  the  winds,  the  opin- 
ion of  the  cultured  outside  world  was  openly  and 
shamelessly  flaunted,  or,  if  the  Western  world 
was  in  any  way  to  be  emulated,  it  was  on  the  side 


l62  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

of  darkness  and  infamy.  Again  Germany  became 
the  land  of  inspiration  to  Russia,  only  now  it  was 
an  inspiration  to  race-hatred  rather  than  to  hu- 
maneness and  fellow-love.  Prince  Bismarck  had 
by  this  time  turned  his  back  upon  the  liberal  ideas 
he  so  frequently  avowed  in  his  younger  days,  and 
finding  it  convenient  to  forget  the  valuable  serv- 
ices rendered  to  him  and  to  his  political  aspira- 
tions by  eminent  Jews  like  Lasker  and  Bamberger, 
allied  himself  with  the  now  powerful  Conserva- 
tives and  with  the  new  "Christian  Socialist"  party 
of  the  Reichstag  for  utilitarian  reasons.  Court- 
Chaplain  Stoecker  was  allowed  a  free  hand  in  his 
Antisemitic  agitation,  and  the  learned  but  fanati- 
cal professor  Treitschke's  phrase,  "Die  Juden 
sind  unser  Unglueck"  (The  Jews  are  our  misfor- 
tune), gained  currency  all  through  the  German 
empire  (1880).  The  ideas  thus  made  popular  in 
Berlin  soon  were  loudly  echoed  in  St.  Petersburg, 
only  the  Russians  were  to  better  the  instruction 
of  their  Prussian  masters.  The  assassination  of 
Alexander  II  served  as  a  pretext  for  the  govern- 
ment reactionaries  to  fan  the  popular  ill-will 
against  the  Jews  into  a  fury,  and  the  new  mon- 
arch was  not  the  man  to  curb  the  passions  of  the 
masses  but  rather  to  stimulate  them  to  a  still 
higher  pitch  of  unrighteous  zeal.  A  pupil  of 
Pobyedenostseff,  Procurator  of  the  Holy  Synod, 
who  fully  merited  the  title  of  the  "Russian  Tor- 
quemada"  given  him  by  Turgenien*  as  well  as  by 
the  German  historian  Mommsen,  Alexander  III 
(reigned  1881-1894)  was  in  every  way  as  fanati- 
cal and  bigoted  as  his  grandfather  Nicholas  I 
without  the  latter's  energy  or  originality  in  devis- 
ing evil  for  the  ostensible  purpose  of  effecting 
ultimate  good.  A  tool  in  the  hands  of  unscrupu- 
lous advisers,  this  last  Alexander  entered  upon 
his  reign  as  the  champion  of  Panslavism  which 


RUSSIA  163 

purported  ruthlessly  to  repress  all  non-Russian 
sects  and  nationalities.  Loris  Melikov,  his  father's 
liberal  Minister,  was  dismissed,  absolutism  was 
asserted  as  the  only  safe  principle  for  the  main- 
tenance of  the  autocracy,  becoming  a  law  by  an 
imperial  manifesto  of  May  14,  1881,  and  Jew- 
baiting  was  adopted  as  a  standing  policy,  both  for 
the  suppression  of  the  revolutionary  movement 
and  for  diverting  the  people's  attention  from  the 
government's  oppressive  measures.  Soon  after 
his  accession  anti-Jewish  riots  (Pogroms)  broke 
out  in  Yelisavetgrad,  Kiev,  Shpola,  Ananiev, 
Wasilkov,  Konotop  and  a  hundred  and  sixty  other 
places,  resulting  in  the  sacking  and  burning  of 
homes,  the  ravaging  of  women  and  the  killing  or 
maiming  of  thousands  of  men,  women  and  chil- 
dren. As  was  subsequently  shown,  these  disturb- 
ances were  inspired  and  premeditated  by  the  gov- 
ernment, which  abetted  the  rioters  in  their  work 
and  hindered  the  Jews  from  defending  themselves. 
In  Kiev,  Governor-General  Drentelen  refused  to 
protect  the  Jews,  stating  that  "he  would  not  en- 
danger the  lives  of  his  soldiers  for  the  sake  of  a 
few  Jews,"  while  in  nearly  every  other  place  the 
authorities  worked  hand  in  hand  with  the  rioters. 
Notwithstanding  the  revulsion  of  feeling  these 
atrocities  evoked  all  through  the  civilized  world, 
resulting  in  large  indignation  meetings  which 
were  held  simultaneously  in  London  and  New 
York  (February  i,  1882)  the  work  of  ruin  and 
death  was  continued.  Renewed  rioting  took  place 
in  Warsaw,  Nyezhin,  Kuzmintzy,  Plitovich,  Kli- 
mov,  Okhrimotzy,  Lubny  and  Balta.  "The  Black 
Hundreds  of  the  Nineteenth  Century  put  to  shame 
the  Haidamacks  of  the  Eighteenth  and  the  Cos- 
sacks of  the  Seventeenth."  * 


*J.  S,  Raisin,  op.  cit.  p.  269. 


164  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

Hypocrisy  went  hand  in  hand  with  this  policy 
of  Jewish  extermination  which,  in  the  words  of 
Pobyedonostseff,  was  "to  force  one-third  of  them 
to  emigrate,  another  third  to  embrace  Christian- 
ity, and  the  remainder  to  die  of  starvation."  For 
while  those  fearful  massacres,  instigated  and 
abetted  by  the  government,  were  in  progress,  those 
highest  in  authority  were  inventing  all  sorts  of 
excuses  for  the  disturbances,  placing  an  entirely 
false  construction  upon  their  origin  or  the  motive 
behind  them.  To  Baron  Horace  de  Guenzburg 
the  Czar's  brother,  Grand  Duke  Vladimir,  de- 
clared that  the  anti-Jewish  outbreaks  were  the 
result  of  the  general  tendency  to  lawlessness 
and  violence  rather  than  to  a  special  animus 
against  the  Jews,  while  the  emperor  himself  on 
May  23,  1 88 1,  assured  a  Jewish  deputation  con- 
sisting of  Baron  Guenzburg,  Sack,  Passower, 
Bank  and  Berlin,  that  the  riots  were  the  work  of 
anarchists  and  that  the  Jewish  question  would  re- 
ceive his  personal  attention.  In  this  the  Czar  spoke 
truly,  the  Jewish  question  did  receive  his  personal 
attention,  not,  however,  to  solve  it  but  only  to 
aggravate  it  the  more.  On  the  same  day  (Sep- 
tember 3,  1881)  on  which  an  ukase  was  issued  to 
all  the  Governors  to  appoint  local  commissions  for 
the  solution  of  the  Jewish  problem  within  their 
Governments,  General  Ignatieff  sent  circulars  to 
these  Governors  informing  them  that  the  race 
riots  were  the  result  of  the  economic  exploitation 
of  the  Christian  masses  at  the  hands  of  the  Jews. 
Thus  were  the  Governors  put  wise  as  to  the  real 
intentions  of  the  government  and  their  own  part 
in  the  fiendish  persecutions  to  be  directed  against 
the  Jews.  Henceforth  no  Jew  could  expect  jus- 
tice in  Russia.  At  the  farcical  trial  of  the  riot- 
ers before  the  court-martial  at  Kiev,  Attorney- 
General  Stryelnikov  took  the  part  of  the  defend- 


RUSSIA  165 

ants  he  was  there  to  prosecute  by  throwing  the 
entire  blame  upon  the  Jews.  The  Antisemitic 
press,  headed  by  such  papers  as  the  "Novoye 
Vremya"  of  St.  Petersburg  and  the  "Kievlyanin" 
of  Kiev  kept  up  the  agitation,  and  the  endless 
anti-Jewish  legislation  which  now  became  the  al- 
most sole  occupation  of  the  government,  came  to 
be  regarded  as  a  most  justifiable  procedure 
against  the  alleged  parasitical  enemies  of  the  coun- 
try. Here  and  there  a  faint  voice  could  be  heard 
in  behalf  of  the  proscribed  and  outlawed  race, 
coming  from  the  more  intelligent  classes  who  felt 
ashamed  at  the  mediaeval  barbarism  into  which 
their  country  had  relapsed.  Likewise,  the  com- 
mission appointed  by  the  Czar  with  Count  Pahlen 
as  Chairman  to  investigate  the  causes  of  the  great 
unrest  was  courteous  enough  to  hand  in  a  report 
favorable  to  the  Jews,  stating  that  the  spread  of 
the  riots  was  made  possible  by  "the  inadequacy  or 
weakness  of  the  measures  adopted  by  the  police." 
The  government,  however,  persisted  in  its  policy. 
As  if  in  answer  to  the  demand  for  justice  to  the 
Jew  heard  from  foreign  capitals,  Alexander  de- 
creed the  infamous  "Temporary  Measures"  or 
"May  Laws"  (May  3,  1882)  of  which  Ignatieff 
was  the  author  and  which  aimed  at  curtailing 
whatever  little  freedom  of  movement  the  Jews  still 
had  within  the  "Pale,"  thus  rendering  their  lot  in- 
finitely worse  and  quite  unbearable.  By  these 
"Measures"  all  Jews  of  the  fifteen  Governments 
of  Western  Russia  were  expelled  from  the  villages 
and  driven  into  the  cities  and  towns.  Leases  and 
mortgages  held  by  Jews  on  landed  estates  were 
cancelled.  To  restrict  the  area  of  the  "Pale"  it- 
self, it  was  decreed  six  years  later  to  take  the  Ros- 
tov and  Taganrog  districts  out  of  it  and  to  in- 
clude them  within  the  military  Don  district  closed 
to  the  Jews.  To  add  to  the  economic  misery  of 


1 66  'HISTORY  OF  THE  JEWS 

the  Jews,  a  number  of  incendiary  fires  broke  out 
throughout  the  Jewish  settlements,  recurring  with 
persistent  regularity  every  summer.  The  few 
privileges  granted  the  Jews  by  Alexander  II  were 
little  by  little  taken  away  from  them  and  between 
1888  and  1890  large  numbers  of  Jewish  mechanics 
were  expelled  from  St.  Petersburg  where  they  had 
been  allowed  to  remain  in  the  former  reign.  In 
a  similar  manner  were  the  rights  of  Jewish  uni- 
versity graduates  curtailed,  and  the  number  of 
Jewish  students  in  the  high  schools  and  universi- 
ties was  greatly  restricted.  In  1891,  upon  the  ap- 
pointment of  Grand  Duke  Sergius  as  Governor- 
General  of  Moscow,  the  expulsion  of  the  Jews 
from  that  city  began,  about  fourteen  thousand 
Jews  being  expelled  therefrom  in  a  little  more 
than  a  year.  The  Jews  were  given  no  notice  of 
the  intention  of  the  administration,  so  that  they 
could  not  collect  their  debts,  nor,  in  many  in- 
stances, even  sell  their  household  articles,  most  of 
which  they  had  to  leave  behind.  Other  expul- 
sions took  place  in  Novgorod,  Riga,  Yalta, 
Kaluga,  Ryazan  and  Tula.  At  the  same  time  a 
premium  was  placed  upon  conversion  to  the 
Greek  Catholic  Church.  By  the  mere  formula 
of  the  sprinkling  of  holy  water,  the  hounded  and 
outlawed  Jew  could  become  equal  before  the  law 
with  the  Christian  Russian,  invested  with  all 
rights  and  even  with  special  privileges,  and  given 
some  monetary  support.  Even  a  Jewish  criminal 
could  escape  the  consequences  of  his  misdeed  by 
obtaining  a  certificate  of  conversion.  Regardless 
of  the  demoralization  which  such  a  policy  brought 
to  a  large  portion  of  his  empire,  the  Czar  per- 
sisted in  his  course  and  remained  indifferent  to 
the  protests  of  the  outside  world.  Gladstone's 
suggestion  "to  rouse  the  conscience  of  Russia  and 
Europe"  remained  but  a  pious  wish,  and  the 


RUSSIA  167 

memorial  adopted  by  the  Guildhall  meeting  in 
London  (December  10,  1890),  was  not  even  re- 
ceived by  the  Czar  but  was  returned  to  the  Lord 
Mayor  unopened. 

And  now  came  about  the  terrible  disillusion- 
ment of  the  Maskilim.  It  was  left  to  the  incen- 
diary and  the  murderer  to  drive  wisdom  into  them 
that  they  might  perceive  the  true  meaning  of 
the  enlightenment  they  had  courted.  Their 
fathers  saw  more  clearly  than  themselves  when 
they  opposed  all  steps  that  would  lead  to  Russi- 
fication  without  emancipation.  The  Jews  were 
far  happier  in  Rusisa,  if  they  could  at  all  be 
happy  there,  before  the  light  of  modernity  had 
penetrated  into  their  humble  dwellings,  to  rouse 
within  them  wants  and  desires  they  could  never 
gratify,  and  to  result  in  a  disastrous  alienation 
from  their  faith  and  their  people.  Moreover,  the 
dire  persecutions  that  have  thus  come  upon  them 
found  them,  unlike  their  ancestors,  no  longer  able 
to  endure.  Where  the  old  generations  had  at 
least  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  that  they  were 
suffering  for  a  sacred  cause,  their  enlightened 
children  and  grand-children  could  not  even  grasp 
the  meaning  of  the  persecutions,  nor  understand 
why  they  should  thus  be  singled  out  for  suffering. 
In  the  midst  of  the  rioting  in  Kiev  and  Odessa 
the  young  children  of  the  aristocratic  Jews  would 
ask:  "Are  we,  too,  Jews?"  But  with  the  disil- 
lusionment came  also  a  reawakening.  As  has 
been  true  all  through  the  ages,  their  common  suf- 
ferings now  made  the  Jews  feel  their  kinship  all 
the  more  and  caused  them  to  unite  as  never  be- 
fore in  mutual  sympathy  and  helpfulness.  True, 
hundreds  and  thousands  of  Jews  rushed  to  bap- 
tism as  the  only  panacea  for  their  civil  and  eco- 
nomic ills,  but  the  falling  off  of  the  decayed  limbs 
only  left  the  tree  itself  stronger  and  more  firmly 


1 68  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

intrenched  in  its  Jewish  soil.  Instead  of  driving 
the  mass  of  Jewry  to  Christianity  it  only  made 
them  more  zealously  Jewish,  causing  even  many 
of  the  alienated  sons  to  return  to  the  fold.  Re- 
ligion, however,  was  no  longer  to  play  the  lead- 
ing role  in  this  Jewish  revival.  The  nugatory  in- 
fluence of  the  Haskalah  had  done  its  work,  and 
Russian  Jewry  could  not  now  recede  to  the  posi- 
tion it  had  occupied  at  the  beginning  of  the  nine- 
teenth century.  Henceforth  a  heightened  sense  of 
race-consciousness  takes  the  place  formerly  held 
by  religion,  and  is  soon  to  develop  into  a  concrete 
nationalism  with  Zion  as  its  goal.  The  history  of 
the  new  Palestinian  colonization,  paving  the  way 
for  modern  Zionism,  about  which  more  will  be 
said  here  in  another  chapter,  dates  from  this  Jew- 
ish reawakening  coming  in  the  train  of  the  re- 
action with  which  Alexander  III  began  his  reign 
of  blood  and  terror. 

Before,  however,  the  national  ideal  could  make 
much  headway  and  produce  any  tangible  results 
there  was  urgent  need  for  immediate  relief  of  the 
starved  and  famished  millions  for  whom  the 
"Pale,"  at  all  times  overcrowded  and  degraded, 
now  became  a  veritable  inferno.  The  relief 
moneys  raised  in  Russia  and  in  foreign  countries 
could  only  render  temporary  assistance,  and  that, 
too,  very  inadequately.  Bread,  shelter  and  oppor- 
tunities of  earning  a  livelihood  were  needed  im- 
mediately, and  these  were  not  to  be  had  in  Russia. 
Emigration  to  other  lands  was  the  only  possible 
solution  to  the  pressing  problem,  and  there  soon 
arose  a  migratory  movement  the  like  of  which 
was  unprecedented  even  in  the  history  of  so  foot- 
loose a  race  as  the  Jewish.  A  number  of  leaders 
arose  directing  the  steps  of  the  emigrants,  some 
of  whom  settled  in  Germany,  Austria,  France  or 
England,  while  others  of  the  more  idealistic  went 


RUSSIA  169 

to  Palestine,  devoid  of  means  though  they  were, 
there  to  cultivate  the  soil  of  the  fathers  and  lay 
the  foundation  of  the  Yishub  or  new  Jewish  settle- 
ment. By  far  the  greatest  number,  however, 
wended  their  way  to  the  United  States  there  to 
begin  life  anew  under  the  happy  conditions  of 
American  freedom,  and  to  build  up  the  great 
Jewish  centres  of  New  York,  Chicago,  Phila- 
delphia and  other  large  cities,  while  some  of  them 
found  an  asylum  in  Argentina,  in  the  colonies 
founded  by  Baron  de  Hirsch.  Fully  a  million 
Jews  left  Russia  before  the  close  of  the  century, 
most  of  whom  came  to  America.  Here,  too,  how- 
ever, the  foes  of  the  Jews  in  Russia  were  doomed 
to  disappointment.  The  removal  of  so  many  Jews, 
while  measurably  lightening  the  burden  of  those 
remaining  behind,  did  not  show  a  perceptible  de- 
crease in  their  number.  Emigration,  like  the  con- 
versions, the  massacres  and  the  economic  repres- 
sions, failed  to  deplete  the  land  of  its  Jews.  The 
Jewish  problem  in  Russia,  so  long  as  the  govern- 
ment chose  to  make  it  a  problem,  could  be  solved 
only  in  Russia  and  in  a  way  far  different  from 
that  contemplated  by  the  Czar. 

Economically  wretched  and  politically  outlawed, 
yet  it  is  during  these  very  years  of  incomparable 
suffering  that  Israel  in  Russia  reaches  its  great- 
est moral  elevation.  The  delusion  of  a  pseudo- 
Haskalah  having  worn  off,  the  Jew  in  Russia  at 
last  found  himself,  and  from  a  vain  aspiration 
for  a  half-way  assimilation  in  itself  impossible 
of  attainment  as  it  could  only  lead  to  absorption 
within  the  Slavic  nation,  or,  at  the  very  best,  to 
alienation  from  Judaism,  involving  the  tragedy  of 
a  dual  or  marrano  existence — he  now  turned  his 
thoughts  inwardly  toward  his  own  racial  require- 
ments. The  Jew,  he  found,  is  worth  saving  in 
and  for  himself,  and  if  he  cannot  become  an 


I7O  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

integral  part  of  the  Russian  or  any  other  people, 
he  can,  as  indeed  he  does,  form  a  racial  entity  of 
his  own,  politically  attached  to  the  land  of  his 
birth  or  sojourn,  but  racially,  no  less  than  religi- 
ously, living  his  own  life  and  cultivating  those 
ideals  through  which  the  soul  of  his  race  has  ever 
sought  its  expression.  Even  the  years  of  Alex- 
ander II,  whatever  their  deluding  hopes  and  false 
expectations,  were  of  some  use  to  the  Jews:  they 
prepared  them  for  the  period  of  reawakened  na- 
tional consciousness  that  was  to  follow.  Unbe- 
known to  themselves  the  Maskilim  had  served  as 
the  vanguard  of  the  hosts  of  Jewish  Nationalism, 
and  their  contribution  lay  in  the  literary  labors 
they  had  performed  which  made  possible  the  de- 
velopment of  the  rich  and  strongly  nationalistic 
Hebrew  literature  of  the  reigns  of  Alexander  III 
and  Nicholas  II.  After  1881  Hebrew  is  not,  as 
had  been  the  case  until  then,  largely  a  relic  of 
the  past,  revered,  loved  and  cultivated  mainly  for 
that  reason,  yet  in  reality  serving  as  a  medium  of 
transition  to  the  European  languages  and  the  cul- 
ture to  which  these  were  the  key.  Now  it  is  as- 
siduously studied  for  its  own  sake,  as  the  language 
the  Jew  should  know  because  it  is  inalienably  his, 
and  because  it  is  the  key  to  his  own  vast  treasure- 
house  of  the  spirit.  The  work  which  Perez  Smo- 
lenskin  (Mohilev,  i842-Meran,  Tyrol,  1885)  car~ 
ried  on -for  so  many  years  as  the  champion  of  a 
sane  Haskalah  with  progress  as  its  watchword 
and  a  Jewish  rehabilitation  in  Palestine  as  its 
goal,  using  the  Hebrew  as  both  an  end  in  itself 
and  a  means  to  the  still  greater  end  of  fostering 
the  national  spirit,  now  began  to  bear  fruit.  As  a 
leader  in  the  Haskalah  movement  in  Russia  Smol- 
enskin  was  more  fortunately  situated  than  most 
of  the  other  Maskilim  in  that  his  home  was  in 
Vienna,  and  by  his  extensive  travels  through  the 


PEREZ  SMOLEXSKIN 
(1842-1885) 


RUSSIA  171 

western  countries  he  was  better  able  than  most 
of  his  colleagues  to  observe  the  spiritual  havoc 
which  a  pseudo-Haskalah  had  wrought  in  the  Jew- 
ish communities  of  Germany,  France  and  Eng- 
land. It  was  he  who  in  a  series  of  trenchant 
articles  in  his  "Ha-Shahar"  attacked  the  denation- 
alized Jewish  Reform  movement  and  pointed  to 
the  sad  decadence  of  Judaism  which  followed  the 
thesis  laid  down  by  the  Mendelssohnian  school  that 
Judaism  constituted  a  religion  only.  He  also  fore- 
saw the  coming  of  the  Russian  persecutions  as  the 
inevitable  outcome  of  the  anomalous  position  of 
the  Jews,  which,  however,  he  knew  would  result  in 
the  one  great  good  of  opening  their  eyes  to  the 
dangers  of  the  situation  and  of  directing  their 
thoughts  Zionward.*  The  preservation  of  the  Jews 
as  a  people  was  to  him  even  more  important  than 
the  survival  of  Judaism  as  a  religion,  since  the  lat- 
ter was  possible  only  through  the  former.  And 
the  survival  of  the  Jews  is  largely  dependent  upon 
their  retention  of  the  Hebrew  language  which,  he 
said,  was  "the  only  relic  still  remaining  to  us  from 
the  ruins  of  our  ancient  glory."  He  himself  gave 
proof  of  his  unwavering  belief  in  the  doctrine  he 
proclaimed  by  giving  himself  and  his  talents  to 
writing  in  Hebrew,  even  though  it  meant  penury 
and  want  where,  had  he  written  in  the  Russian  or 
the  German  language  which  he  equally  mastered, 
he  might  have  derived  much  material  benefit.  In 
the  making  of  modern  Hebrew  literature  none  oc- 
cupies a  more  renowned  place  than  Smolenskin 
as  one  who  himself  largely  contributed  to  its  up- 
building by  his  many  novels  and  nother  writings 
and  because  of  the  influence  he  exerted  over  the 
Russian  Jews  to  follow  in  his  footsteps  and  culti- 

*  Of  Smolenskin's  labors  as  a  nationalist  more  will  be  told  in 
this  volume   in  the   chapter  on   Zionism. 


172  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

vate    the    Hebrew    language    as    the   Jew's   most 
treasured  possession. 

From  now  on  Hebrew  is  for  the  Russian  Jew 
synonymous  with  nationalism,  and  every  Hebrew 
writer,  unless  specifically  known  to  be  otherwise, 
is  ipso  facto  regarded  as  an  advocate  and  up- 
holder of  the  ideal  of  national  regeneration.  The 
death  of  Smolenskin  in  1885  found  many  capable 
disciples  of  the  great  master  ready  to  take  up  the 
work  where  he  had  left  it.  The  extinction  of  the 
"Ha-Shahar"  was  followed  by  the  birth  of  a  con- 
siderable number  of  ambitious  publications,  the 
"Gan  Perahim"  (Flower  Garden),  in  Vilna,  by 
Mezah,  "He-Asif"  (The  Gatherer),  in  Warsaw, 
by  Sokolow,  "Keneset  Yisrael"  (The  Assembly  of 
Israel),  also  in  Warsaw,  by  S.  P.  Rabbinovich: 
The  number  of  Hebrew  readers  grew  apace,  and 
soon  many  a  Hebrew  writer  derived  a  living  in- 
come from  his  pen  and  could  therefore  give  him- 
self exclusively  to  literature  as  his  life's  career. 
The  great  demand  for  the  printed  Hebrew  word 
stimulated  competition,  and  in  1886  Dr.  Judah 
Loeb  Kantor  (Vilna,  i849-Riga,  1915)  began 
the  publication  of  "Ha-Yom"  (The  Day),  the 
first  Hebrew  daily,  which  forced  the  other  two 
periodicals,  the  "Ha-Meliz"  of  St.  Petersburg  and 
"Ha-Zefirah"  of  Warsaw  to  a  like  step,  so  that 
Russian  Jewry  now  had  three  Hebrew  daily  news- 
papers, given  to  political  intelligence,  communal 
news  items  and  literary  articles,  but  primarily  to 
the  fostering  of  the  national  spirit,  or  as  it  was 
known  by  its  Hebrew  name,  Hibbat  Ziyyon 
(Love  of'Zion)..  Warsaw. now  took  the/place 
of  Vilna  as  the  Hebrew  literary  center,  and  there, 
in  addition  to  the  already  existing  private  Hebrew 
publishers  and  book-sellers,  were  founded  the  two 
publishing  houses  of  Ahiasaf  and  Tuschiah,  both 
of  them  due  to  the  energy  of  A.  L.  Shalkovitch, 


ELIEZER   BEN-YEHUDA 
(b.   1858) 


RUSSIA  173 

himself  a  highly  capable  sketch  writer  and  liter- 
ary critic  under  the  pen-name  of  "Ben  Avigdor". 
These  two  firms  placed  the  Hebrew  literature  upon 
a  modern  business  basis,  stimulated  a  demand  for 
good  and  useful  books,  created  markets  for  their 
productions  throughout  Russia,  and  encouraged 
the  writers  by  offering  a  fair  compensation  for 
their  work.  The  zeal  and  energy  thus  displayed 
in  Russia  reacted  also  on  other  countries,  chiefly 
on  Palestine  where  "Ben  Yehudah,"  destined  to 
fame  as  the  great  Hebrew  lexicographer,  began 
publishing  a  daily  by  the  name  of  "Ha-Zebi"  (The 
Deer,  or  The  Glory),  and  in  Galicia  where  Sam- 
uel J.  Fuchs  renewed  the  publication  of  the  weekly 
"Ha-Maggid"  (in  Cracow),  Yitzhak  Fernhoff 
started  issuing  occasional  belles-lettres  pamphlets, 
while  S.  I.  Graeber  published  his  "Ozar  Ha-Sifrut" 
and  Dr.  Israel  Guenzig,  .in  collaboration  with  S.  J. 
Fuchs,  established  a  literary  magazine  by  the 
name  of  "Ha-Eshkol."  At  the  same  time  an  attempt 
was  made  by  Reuben  Brainin  (b.  Ladi,  Mohilev, 
1863)  then  resident  at  Vienna,  to  re-establish  a 
Hebrew  literary  center  in  the  Austrian  capital 
by  founding  the  "Mi-Mizrah  u-mi-Maarab  (From 
East  and  West).  Nearly  all  of  these  periodicals 
were  short-lived.  Their  sporadic  rise,  however, 
in  great  number  and  in  many  new  places,  testified 
to  the  strength  and  vitality  of  the  national  ideal 
of  which  the  Hebrew  tongue  was  the  natural  and 
necessary  vehicle. 

It  was  in  Russia,  however,  where  this  litera- 
ture was  to  continue  in  growth  and  reach  dimen- 
sions never  before  dreamed  of  or  anticipated  by 
even  the  most  ardent  lovers  of  the  Hebrew  word. 
In  the  early  nineties  we  see  Odessa,  for  many 
years  the  stronghold  of  assimilationist  Haskalah, 
come  to  the  fore  as  a  rival  centre  of  Hebrew 
literary  activity  to  Warsaw  and  Vilna.  Here  was 


174  HISTORY    OF   THE    JEWS 

the  home  of  Lilienblum,  the  fiery  nationalist,  Rab- 
nitzki  the  critic,  Levinsky  the  humorist,  S.  J. 
Abramovich  (Mendele  Mokher  Sepharim}  the  in- 
comparable novelist  and  stylist,  S.  M.  Dubnow, 
the  famous  historian,  Dr.  Kaminer,  the  poet, 
David  Kahana,  the  scholarly  writer  on  historical 
themes  and,  chief  of  all,  Asher  Ginzberg,  known 
as  Ahad  Haam  (One  of  the  People),  who 
stands  out  foremost  among  all  Hebrew  writers 
and  who,  as  a  thinker  and  stylist,  particularly 
as  the  pathfinder  of  the  nationalist  movement  by 
his  advocacy  of  Palestine  as  the  cultural  centre 
of  the  Jews  if  it  could  be  nothing  else,  revolution- 
ized the  Hebrew  literary  world  and  placed  his  im- 
press upon  its  progress  as  did  no  other  writer 
since  Smolenskin.  With  such  a  galaxy  of  talents 
it  was  possible  to  bring  about  notable  literary 
achievements.  In  1890  there  appeared  in  that 
city  the  literary  magazine  "Kaveret"  (The  Bee- 
hive) which  was  supplanted  in  the  next  few  years 
by  the  more  ambitious  "Ha-Pardes"  (Pleasure  Gar- 
den). In  these  publications  Rabnitzky  and  Ahad 
Haam  are  the  leading  contributors,  but  are  sup- 
ported by  a  host  of  other  writers.  Soon  Odessa  be- 
came a  prominent  centre  for  Hebrew  publications, 
second  only  to  Warsaw.  A  number  of  books  by 
noted  writers  made  their  appearance  in  the  early 
nineties,  the  most  prominent  of  them  being  the  first 
volume  of  Ahad  Ha-Am's  "Al  Parashat  Derak- 
him"  (At  the  Parting  of  the  Ways)  which  ap- 
peared in  1894.  It  was  here,  too,  that  Ahad  Haam 
first  mapped  out  the  plan  of  an  encyclopedia  in 
Hebrew  to  be  known  as  "Ozar  Ha-Yahadut"  (Ju- 
daism's Storehouse)  which  was  shortly  thereafter 
taken  up  by  Dr.  Isidore  Singer,  who  elaborated 
upon  the  original  idea  and,  after  meeting  with  many 
obstacles  in  Europe  finally  succeeded  in  having  it 
materialized  in  the  "Jewisri  Encyclopedia"  in  New 


RUSSIA  175 

York.  It  was  in  Odessa,  too,  where,  next  to  Ahad 
Haam,  there  arose  three  of  the  foremost  literary 
figures  of  the  Hebrew  literature  of  our  day, 
Hayim  Nahman  Bialik  and  Saul  Tshernikhovsky, 
the  famous  lyrical  poets,  and  Dr.  Joseph  Klaus- 
ner,  the  critic  and  linguist,  who  ascribes  his  own 
literary  development  to  the  influence  of  Ahad 
Haam  whom,  in  1903,  he  succeeded  as  editor  of 
the  "Haschiloah." 

The  progress  of  this  literature  during  the  nine- 
ties is  phenomenal.  As  if  by  magic  there  arose 
throughout  the  "Pale"  a  host  of  writers,  pub- 
licists, critics,  poets  and  novelists  whom  any  litera- 
ture would  gladly  and  proudly  claim  as  its  own. 
The  writers  of  the  preceding  two  decades,  even 
men  like  Dr.  Solomon  Mandelkern,  historian, 
philologist  and  poet,  Mordecai  Zebi  Mane,  the  lyric 
poet,  Menahem  Mendel  Dolitzky  and  Isaac  Rab- 
binovich,  the  romantic  poets  of  the  nationalist 
movement,  Leon  Rabbinovich,  the  publicist,  and 
others  are  gradually  pushed  into  the  background 
by  younger  and  more  capable  men.  Of  the  older 
men  David  Frischman,  poet  and  critic,  Nahum 
Sokolow,  the  leading  Hebrew  journalist  of  his 
generation,  Simon  Bernfeld,  the  capable  historian 
and  writer  on  Jewish  science,  S.  L.  Zitron,  the 
popular  writer  on  literary  topics,  and  J.  H.  Tav- 
yev,  the  clever  feuilletonist  and  writer  on  educa- 
tional themes,  still  retain  their  places  as  guides 
and  arbiters  in  the  literary  activities  of  the  times 
and  keep  pace  with  the  demands  of  the  great  liter- 
ary evolution  they  have  helped  to  bring  about.  It 
is  the  younger  writers,  however,  who  are  now  rap- 
idly forging  ahead  and  who  display  by  far  the 
greater  promise.  Besides  the  great  luminaries 
Byalik  and  Tshernikhovsky,  we  see  many  lesser 
but  none  the  less  brilliant  poetical  lights,  Jacob 
Cohen,  David  Fichman,  Z.  Shneor,  Isaac  Katzen- 


176  HISTORY    OF    THE   JEWS 

elson,  David  Shimoni,  Simon  Ginsberg,  excelling 
older  poets  like  S.  L.  Gordon,  N.  Pines,  A.  Lu- 
boshitzky, — all  of  them  lyrics  of  a  high  order,  in 
large  measure  followers  in  the  footsteps  of  Bya- 
lik  though  largely  influenced  also  by  the  masters 
of  the  European  literatures.  Among  the  novel- 
ists, Judah  Steinberg,  "J.  Bershadsky"  (nom  de 
plume  for  J.  Domoshevitsky),  and  J.  H.  Brenner 
stand  out  among  their  colleagues  as  realists  of 
highly  descriptive  powers,  faithful  narrators  of 
the  Jewish  life  of  their  day  and,  in  consequence, 
portrayers  of  the  gloomy  conditions  obtaining  in 
the  "Pale,"  the  spiritual  chaos  and  mental  and 
moral  confusion  wrought  among  the  six  million 
souls  of  a  race  brought  to  the  verge  of  ruin  by  an 
imperial  policy  of  systematic  proscription  and  out- 
lawry. H.  D.  Naumberg,  G.  Schofman,  A.  A. 
Kabak,  and  J.  D.  Berkovich  who,  in  the  main, 
are  writers  of  short  sketches,  are  next  in  im- 
portance to  their  above-mentioned  colleagues.  Un- 
der the  impulse  of  the  new  revival  we  see  several 
of  the  prominent  writers  of  the  preceding  decades 
return  to  the  Hebrew  which  they  had  left  for  the 
now  rising  Yiddish  literature,  among  them  Sha- 
lom Jacob  Abramovich  who,  in  the  "Pardes", 
"Luah  Ahiasaf"  and  other  magazines,  published 
several  of  his  choicest  works  which,  for  their  subtle 
humor  as  well  as  remarkable  adaptation  of  the 
Talmudic  style  to  modern  expressions,  have  be- 
come veritable  classics  ("Bi-Yeshibah  Shel  Maalah 
u-bi-Yeshibah  Shel  Mattah,"  "Lo  Nahat  be-Yis- 
rael,"  "Mas'ot  Binyamin  ha-Shelishi,"  etc.),  Isaac 
Loeb  Perez  ("Ha-Ugab"  and  a  great  number  of 
stories  from  Hassidic  Life,  which  he  translated 
from  their  Yiddish  original  by  himself),  and  Sha- 
lom Rabbinovich,  better  known  as  Shalom  Aleikheni 
("Don  Kishot  mi-Mazepevka"  and  other  stories). 
At  the  same  time  we  see  the  well-known  veterans 


DR.   ISIDOR   SINGER 
(b.  1857) 


DAVID    FRISCHMAN 
(b.  1865) 


RUSSIA  177 

of  the  Haskalah  period  continue  their  scientific  re- 
search work,  mainly  along  lines  of  Jewish  history 
and  philology,  while  S.  P.  Rabbinovich  under- 
takes the  translation  of  Graetz's  monumental  his- 
tory into  Hebrew,  supplementing  it  with  copious 
important  notes  by  himself  and  other  leading 
scholars  of  the  day.  Nearly  all  of  the  more  im- 
portant belles-lettres  works  of  the  German,  French 
and  English  literature,  were  made  known  to  the 
Hebrew  readers  in  translation.  David  Frisch- 
mann,  in  addition  to  his  clever  skits,  his  many 
poems  and  his  critical  articles,  has  also  earned 
an  honorable  place  in  this  literature  by  his  trans- 
lations from  the  works  of  George  Eliot,  Spiel- 
hagen,  and  Nietzsche.  Schiller  and  Heine,  Byron 
and  Shelley,  Pushkin  and  Lermontov  found  their 
way  into  the  Hebrew,  while  probably  the  ablest 
translation  into  any  language  of  Longfellow's 
"Hiawatha"  is  to  be  found  in  Tshernikhovsky's 
Hebrew  version  of  that  great  poem  (1913). 

The  man  to  whom  greatest  credit  belongs  for 
the  literery  activity  of  this  period  is  doubtless 
Ahad  Haam.  After  despairing  of  seeing  his  plan 
for  an  encyclopedia  in  Hebrew  materialized,  he, 
in  1897,  established  the  "Haschlioah"  which 
though  edited  in  Odessa  was  published  and  printed 
in  Berlin.  At  once  this  monthly  magazine  became 
the  rallying  place  for  all  the  litterateurs  of  the  day 
not  only  of  Russia  but  of  the  Western  countries 
and  America  as  well.  The  leading  Jewish  savants 
of  the  time,  Isaac  Hirsch  Weiss  and  Meyer 
Friedman,  David  Kaufmann  and  Samuel  Kraus, 
W.  Bacher  and  Abraham  Berliner,  besides  writers 
of  note  like  S.  Bern f eld  and  David  Neumark,  be- 
came frequent  contributors.  In  its  pages  M.  D. 
Brandstaedter  returned  to  the  Hebrew  literary 
fold  as  a  story-writer,  while  M.  J.  Berdichevsky 
and  Hillel  Zeitlin  wrote  their  brilliant  literary 


178  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

and  philosophical  studies  and,  along  with  I.  L. 
Perez,  exploited  there  the  field  of  Hassidism, 
leaving  a  permanent  impression  of  that  great  re- 
vival movement  in  Judaism.  The  real  value  of 
this  noted  periodical,  however,  lay  in  the  fact  that 
it  not  only  encouraged  the  older  and  well-known 
writers  but  also  brought  to  the  fore  a  number  of 
new  talents  many  of  whom  have  since  attained  a 
place  of  great  eminence  in  this  literature.  It  wras 
in  the  "Haschiloah"  that  Byalik  produced  his  great- 
est poems  ("Akhen  Hatzir  ha- Am,"  "Ha-Matmid," 
"Mi-Shire  ha-Horef,"  "Mete  Midbar,"  "Megilat 
ha-Esh,"  etc.),  Tshernikhovsky  found  himself  in 
"Ani  Ma'amin,"  "Ben  ha-Metzarin,"  "Ben  Har- 
im"  and  other  poems  in  which  he  strikes 
a  note  hitherto  new  to  the  Hebrew  verse, 
introducing  in  it  the  quest  of  aestheticism, 
the  Greek  spirit  of  beauty,  love  and  the 
joy  of  living.  Here,  too,  was  discovered  the 
great  talent  of  Mordecai  Zeeb  Feierberg  (1874- 
1899),  who  though  he  produced  but  little,  dying  at 
the  early  age  of  twenty-five,  reveals  in  the  few 
writings  he  left  a  power  for  psychological  an- 
alysis of  impressions  and  emotions  which  easily 
places  him  in  the  front  rank  of  contemporary 
writers.  Probably  no  one  else  succeeded  so  well 
in  depicting  the  deeply  emotional  and  idealistically 
sentimental  side  of  Jewish  life  than  Feierberg, 
himself  the  very  embodiment  of  the  "Hafni  the 
Dreamer"  character  he  so  skilfully  and  sym- 
pathetically drew  in  most  of  his  sketches.  But  the 
"Haschiloah"  was  more  than  a  mere  school  of  lit- 
erature for  the  young  Hebraists.  In  addition  to 
acting  as  arbiter  of  good  literary  taste  for  writers 
and  readers  alike,  it  also  became  a  lofty  tribunal 
from  which  judgment  was  rendered  upon  any  and 
all  of  the  great  Jewish  problems  of  the  day.  It 
created  a  healthy  unrest  among  the  writers  which 


RUSSIA  1 79 

impelled  them  to  recast  their  ideas  and  opinions 
even  as  it  taught  them  to  re-formulate  their 
thoughts  in  a  diction  chaste  and  pure.  All  this 
was  accomplished  single-handed  by  its  editor,  him- 
self a  rare  combination  of  the  occidental  literary 
"Schoengeist"  and  the  Russian  devotee  of  He- 
braic idealism.  Ahad  Haam  taught  his  genera- 
tion to  be  dissatisfield  with  things  as  they  were 
or  were  about  to  become.  His  carping  criticism 
struck  alike  at  assimilationist  and  religious  zealot. 
He  attacked  the  Palestinian  colonization  scheme 
as  impracticable,  and  with  the  same  vim  and 
deeply-cutting  logic  he  also  carried  on  a  war 
against  the  political  Zionism  of  Herzl's  planning, 
demonstrating  its  futility  in  so  clear-cut  a  man- 
ner as  to  compel  Herzl  and  the  other  leaders  to 
take  cognizance  of  his  strictures,  and  to  call  forth 
a  spirited  retort  from  the  pen  of  Max  Nordau.* 
When  Ahad  Haam  retired  from  its  editorship  in 
1903  the  Haschiloah  passed  under  the  guidance 
of  Dr.  Joseph  Klausner  since  which  time  that 
periodical  has  become,  if  not  more  literary,  at 
least  more  European  in  its  literary  scope  as  well 
as  more  Zionistic  in  tone.  Never  since,  however, 
has  it  reached  the  idealistic  height  and  moral  tone 
it  had  attained  in  the  time  of  its  founder  and  first 
editor  which  will  always  remain  the  most  precious 
years  of  the  Hebrew  literary  movement  in  Russia. 
Along  with  the  Hebrew  movement  there  now 
looms  up  the  star  of  the  Yiddish  literature  which, 
if  less  classical  and  more  humble  in  its  demands 
and  pretensions,  has  resulted  in  greater  immediate 
good  to  the  large  mass  of  Russian  Jewry.  A 
study  of  the  rise  and  growth  of  this  literature  is 
most  important  to  the  understanding  of  Russo- 


*  See  also  about  Ahad  Haam  in  the  chapter  on  Zionism  in  this 
volume. 


l8o  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

Jewish  life  of  the  last  few  decades.  Even  in  Rus- 
sia, where  the  Talmud  and  the  Hebrew  literature 
generally  were  so  assiduously  cultivated,  the  He- 
brew language  could  remain  the  acquired  posses- 
sion of  only  a  minority.  The  bulk  of  Russian 
Jewry,  while  revering  it  as  the  sacred  tongue  of 
their  past  in  which  the  Bible  and  the  prayer-book 
were  written,  could  not  obviously  resort  to  it  as 
readily  as  to  their  Judaeo-German  vernacular. 
Doubtless,  the  slowness  with  which  Russian 
Jewry  responded  to  whatever  attempts  there  had 
been  made  for  their  modernization  was  due  to 
the  absence  for  a  long  time  of  any  literary  me- 
diums in  the  only  language  in  which  the  masses 
were  fully  at  home — the  Yiddish.  Because  He- 
brew learning  was  limited  to  the  comparative  few 
it  was  regarded  as  the  heritage  of  the  lamdanim 
or  learned  aristocracy,  and  within  reach  of  only 
the  idlers  or  the  rich.  The  humble  working  masses 
remained  untouched  by  either  the  Russian  or  the 
Hebrew  movements  among  the  intellectuals  and, 
aside  from  a  few  wonder-tales  from  either  Jewish 
or  Christian  sources,  like  the  "Baba-Buch" 
(Book  of  Prince  Baba)  "Ma'aseh-Buch"  (Story 
Book),  the  tales  about  the  miracle-working  rab- 
bis, moralist  books,  the  "Tehinot"  or  special 
prayers  for  the  women,  such  Yiddish  versions  of 
the  Bible  as  the  "Tse'enah  u-Re'enah"  and  "Nofet 
Tsufim,"  and  the  "Menorat  ha-Maor"  and  similar 
devotional  works,  most  of  which  were  of 
German  importation,  those  masses  were  left 
wholly  unprovided  as  to  their  spiritual 
needs.  Writing  in  the  Judaeo-German  or, 
as  it  was  contemptuously  called,  Jargon  was 
deemed  a  degradation  for  one  of  scholarly  aspira- 
tion and  could  least  of  all  enlist  the  sympathy  of 
the  early  Maskilim  with  their  programme  of  secu- 
larization and  uplift  by  means  of  the  German  and 


RUSSIA  l8l 

other  European  tongues.  Such  was  the  contempt 
entertained  for  the  Yiddish  in  learned  Jewish 
circles  in  Russia  that  as  late  as  the  second  half  of 
the  nineteenth  century  the  would-be  leaders  of 
the  people,  the  students  of  the  rabbinical  semin- 
aries of  Vilna  and  Zhitomir,  instead  of  writing 
learned  and  useful  works  for  the  education  of  the 
masses  would  consent,  for  a  mere  pittance,  to  com- 
pose highly  overdrawn  and  often  absurd  "Tehinot" 
for  the  women  which  was  about  the  only  form  of 
literature  for  which  the  Yiddish  publishers  could 
then  find  a  ready  market.  Nearly  everywhere  the 
Judaeo-German  dialect  with  its  lack  of  a  fixed 
grammar  and  confusing  mixture  of  words  bor- 
rowed from  many  languages  was  regarded  as  one 
of  the  excrescences  of  the  Galut  (Jewish  Exile), 
unfit  and  unworthy  to  be  used  as  an  instrument 
of  instruction  or  literary  entertainment.  When 
Mendel  Lefin  (1741-1819),  known  as  Satanover, 
published  his  Yiddish  version  of  the  Book  of 
Proverbs  in  1816,  he  was  so  utterly  ridiculed  by 
Tobias  Feder  in  his  book  "Kol  Mehazezim"  that  he 
became  thoroughly  discouraged  from  continuing 
his  efforts  in  this  direction,  and  his  translation  of 
the  Book  of  Ecclesiastes  was  not  published  until 
more  than  half  a  century  after  his  death,  in  1873. 
Yet  here  and  there  a  Maskil  could  be  found  who 
had  freed  himself  from  the  general  prejudice 
against  the  humble  language  of  the  people,  justly 
regarding  it  as  a  most  useful  means  of  educating 
the  masses.  Even  Isaac  Baer  Levinsohn,  who 
thoroughly  despised  the  Yiddish  as  "an  ugly  mix- 
ture of  Biblical,  Polish,  German,  Russian  and 
other  words,"  realized  the  helpfulness  of  this  lan- 
guage in  the  furtherance  of  enlightenment,  and 
in  1828  himself  wrote  a  satirical  work,  "Die 
Hefkerwelt"  (The  Unbridled  World),  in  which, 
more  boldy  than  in  his  Hebrew  works,  he  empties 


l82  HISTORY    OF   THE   JEWS 

the  quiver  of  his  satire  at  the  Hassidic  rabbis  and 
the  communal  leaders  of  his  day,  and  makes 
propaganda  for  his  favorite  plans  of  reform  in 
the  educational  and  occupational  affairs  of  the 
Jews.  Men  like  Israel  Aksenfeld  (1789-1868), 
the  learned  Odessa  lawyer,  and  Dr.  Solomon  Ett- 
inger (1799-1855),  the  genial  physician  of  Sa- 
moscz,  Lublin,  even  openly  espoused  the  Yiddish 
as  their  favorite  literary  tongue  in  which  they 
wrote  their  novels,  dramas  and  poems,  Aksenfeld 
writing  no  less  than  twenty-six  books.  None  of 
the  works  of  these  authors,  however,  appeared  in 
their  lifetime,  though  they  were  largely  circulated 
in  manuscript,  as  there  could  be  found  no  pub- 
lisher ambitious  and  daring  enough  to  undertake 
their  publication  as  a  business  venture.  The  ma- 
jority of  the  Maskilim,  whether  openly  or  tacitly, 
favored  the  discouragement  and  suppression  of 
the  Yiddish  for  the  Hebrew  and  more  especially 
the  German  and  the  Russian.  As  late  as  1864  the 
"Society  for  the  Promotion  of  Enlightenment"  re- 
fused to  award  a  stipend  of  four  hundred  roubles 
toward  the  publication  of  Aksenf  eld's  now 
acknowledged  able  writings,  though  urged  to  do 
so  by  such  men  as  Ossip  Rabbinovich,  Dr.  Schwa- 
bacher,  Dr.  Pinsker  and  others.* 

Mordecai  Aaron  Guenzburg,  the  noted  Hebrew 
author,  has  the  distinction  also  of  being  one  of 
the  pioneers  of  the  Yiddish  literature,  having  trans- 
lated and  actually  published  in  Yiddish,  in  1824, 
his  Hebrew  version  of  Campe's  "Discovery  of 
America."  A.  B.  Gottlober,  the  Hebrew  poet,  wrote 


*  These  two,  Aksenfeld  and  Ettinger,  are  regarded  as  the  fathers 
of  the  modern  Yiddish  literature  in  Russia.  Of  Aksenfeld's  twen- 
ty-six books  only  five,  a  novel  and  four  dramas,  were  ever  pub- 
lished, and  of  these  the  most  important  is  the  drama  entitled  "The 
First  Jewish  Recruit."  Ettinger's  most  prominent  work  published  is 
"Serkele,"  a  drama.  His  fables,  epigrams  and  poems  were  published 
by  his  son,  Wilhelm  Ettinger,  in  St.  Petersburg,  in  1889. 


RUSSIA 

considerably  in  Yiddish  also,  but  his  works  did  not 
appear  till  late  in  the  reign  of  Alexander  II.  This 
is  also  true  of  Isaac  Meier  Dick  (1807-1893), 
probably  the  most  prolific  of  all  the  Yiddish  writ- 
ers of  the  last  century,  whose  greatest  activity  as  a 
writer  of  short  humorous  novels  in  a  plain  and 
sometimes  crude  style  extend  through  the  best  part 
of  Alexander  II's  reign  till  the  last  years  of  Alex- 
ander III.  The  real  epoch-making  event  in  the  his- 
tory of  this  literature  does  not,  however,  take  place 
till  1863  when  Alexander  Zederbaum,  first  to  found 
a  Hebrew  weekly  in  Russia,  made  a  like  attempt  in 
Yiddish  and  alongside  of  his  "Ha-Meliz"  began  in 
Odessa  the  publication  of  the  weekly  "Kol  Mebas- 
ser" (The  Heralding  Voice),  a  Yiddish  periodical 
with  a  Hebrew  name.  It  had  an  immediate  moral 
and  literary  success.  The  scattered  literary  forces 
in  Russian  Jewry  who  might  never  have  discovered 
their  real  powers,  or  having  discovered  them  might 
have  gone  over  to  the  Russian  or  Hebrew  litera- 
ture, now  found  their  opportunity  in  Yiddish. 
Soon  the  "Kol  Mebasser"  became  the  rallying  place 
for  a  number  of  young  writers,  nearly  each  of 
whom  in  a  short  time  acquired  fame  through  his 
work  for  this  paper.  Shalom  Jacob  Abramovich, 
until  then  known  only  for  his  Hebrew  writings, 
abandoned  the  holy  tongue  for  the  profane  dia- 
lect of  the  masses  and  made  his  debut  in  this  paper 
with  his  masterly  work  "The  Mannikin."  Here 
Isaac  Joel  Linetzky  (1839-1915)  published  his 
"Polish  Boy,"  the  one  work  which  was  to  render  his 
name  immortal  to  Russian  Jewry.  Here,  too, 
Abraham  Goldfaden  (1840-1908)  first  began  to 
publish  his  poems  and  developed  those  talents 
which  fitted  him  for  his  life-work  as  the  father 
of  the  Yiddish  theatre  which  he  founded  in  1876. 
Had  the  "Kol  Mebasser"  done  nothing  more 
than  to  stimulate  the  Yiddish  pen  of  Abramovich 


184  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

or,  as  he  is  better  known  to  fame,  Mendele  Mokher 
Sefarim  (Kapul,  Minsk,  i835-Odessa,  1917),  it 
and  its  founder  Zederbaum  could  lay  no  greater 
claim  to  the  gratitude  of  the  Yiddish  reading  pub- 
lic, nor  boast  of  a  more  noteworthy  achievement. 
For  Abramovich  was  the  first  real  great  Yiddish 
writer  to  appear  upon  the  Jewish  horizon,  incom- 
parable alike  for  the  artistry  of  his  creations  and 
the  moral  end  pursued  in  each  of  them.  To  the 
credit  of  all  these  Maskilim  who  wrote  in  Yiddish 
in  the  reign  of  Alexander  II  it  must  be  said  that 
they  stood  much  closer  to  the  humble  Jewish  folk 
and  their  vital  interests  than  their  colleagues  who 
confined  themselves  to  the  Hebrew  or  the  Russian 
as  the  sole  propaganda  means  of  enlightenment. 
The  latter,  generally  speaking,  cared  mainly  for 
the  decorous  side  of  Jewish  life.  The  Ghetto 
with  its  filth  and  misery  repelled  and  made  them 
ashamed.  They  sought  to  remedy  matters  not  by 
going  to  the  root  of  the  evils,  but  by  superimpos- 
ing upon  the  uncultivated  masses  a  foreign  cul- 
ture which  they  blindly  believed  could  in  a  day 
transform  a  pauper  into  a  prince.  The  masses 
clamored  for  bread  and  the  barest  of  chances  to 
exist  and  these  aristocratic  illuminati  replied  by 
prescribing  "German,"  "Science,"  "Literature." 
Little  wonder,  therefore,  that  their  efforts  largely 
remained  unavailing  and  their  polished  and  gran- 
diloquent appeals  were  but  too  often  a  mere  voice 
in  the  desert.  The  Yiddish  writers,  on  the  other 
hand,  in  using  the  crude  and  as  yet  uncultivated 
dialect  of  the  masses  also  succeeded  better  in 
fathoming  the  people's  ills  and  in  applying  more 
certain  remedies.  They  assumed  no  airs  of  su- 
periority and  condescension,  but,  coming  from  the 
people  and  mingling  freely  with  them,  they  diag- 
nosed the  true  nature  of  the  disease,  and  gave 
themselves  to  its  eradication.  With  them,  too,  as 


SHALOM   JACOB   ABRAMOVICH 

("Mendele  Mokher  Sepharim") 

(1835-1917) 


RUSSIA  185 

with  the  Maskilim,  enlightenment  was  a  most  de- 
sirable end  which,  however,  they  felt  could  come 
about  only  after  the  removal  of  the  many  abuses 
which  like  a  canker  were  eating  away  the  vitals 
of  the  race.  For  the  moment,  therefore,  they 
contented  themselves  with  letting  the  question  of 
occidental  culture  remain  in  the  background,  direct- 
ing their  chief  attention  to  the  more  pressing 
needs  of  the  people.  In  this  crusade  Abramovich 
led  the  way.  He  was  artist  and  revolutionary 
alike,  and  in  his  many  stories  from  the  Jewish 
life  of  his  day,  notably  in  his  "Mannikin"  and  "The 
Meat  Tax,"  he  points  out  the  gross  abuses  to  which 
the  people  had  been  subjected  at  the  hands  of 
their  unscrupulous  and  self-appointed  leaders, 
who  made  use  of  the  hapless  political  situation  of 
the  race  to  terrorize  their  brethren  into  submission 
to  all  sorts  of  extortions  to  escape  the  threatened 
reprisals  of  the  government.  In  "The  Travels  of 
Benjamin  the  Third"  he  pictures  the  naivete  and 
hopeless  impracticability  that  had  developed 
among  the  ever  oppressed  and  unsophisticated 
denizens  of  the  "Pale,"  reducing  them  to  a  state  of 
fearful,  if  comical,  utopianism  and  day-dreaming, 
while  in  "The  Mare" — his  best-known  work — he  de- 
scribes the  complete  hopelessness  of  the  quest  for 
higher  culture  under  Russian  conditions.  Con- 
siderable as  was  Abramovich's  achievement  in  the 
Hebrew  literature  to  which,  as  to  his  first  love, 
he  returned  after  many  years,  it  is  with  the  Yid- 
dish that  his  name  will  forever  remain  linked  as 
both  its  greatest  literary  genius  and  most  influen- 
tial reformer.  Long  known  as  the  "Grandfather" 
of  the  Yiddish  literature,  Abramovich  has  only 
just  passed  away  (December  15,  1917)  at  the  age 
of  eighty-three  after  a  literary  activity  which,  for 
its  length  and  volume  of  production,  has  been 
equalled  by  few  of  the  world's  noted  writers. 


1 86  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

Along-side  of  Abramovich,  of  Moses  Aaron 
Schatzkes  (1825-1899)  who,  like  Linetzky,  has 
immortalized  his  name  by  the  production  of  only 
one  great  work,  "The  Jewish  Ante-Passover,"  a 
story  of  the  ritualistic  hardships  connected  with 
the  Passover  preparations,  and  of  the  already 
mentioned  Eliezer  Zebi  Zweifel  whose  work  in 
Yiddish  almost  equals  his  literary  activity  in  He- 
brew— there  now  arise  upon  the  scene  a  great 
number  of  writers,  many  of  them  of  considerable 
talent.  In  Eliakum  Zunser  (Vilna,  i84O-New 
York,  1913)  is  revealed  the  first  truly  able  and 
prominent  folk-singer  who  was  to  serve  as  the 
forerunner  of  the  more  finished  poets  of  the  last 
three  decades.  Jacob  Dienesohn  is  revealed  as  a 
novelist  of  great  strength  in  his  "Ha-Xeehabim 
veha-Neimim."  With  the  establishment  by  Zeder- 
baum,  in  1883,  of  the  weekly  "Volksblatt"  a  new 
impetus  is  given  to  writing  in  Yiddish,  and 
there  appear  a  number  of  new  literary  forces, 
Mordecai  Spektor  as  a  novelist  of  great  power; 
Solomon  Rabbinovich  (Shalom  Aleikhem),  the 
incomparable  humorist  (Pereyaslav,  Poltava,  1859- 
New  York,  1916),  and  Simon  Frug  (Bobrovy, 
Kherson,  i86o-Odessa,  1916)  and  David  Frisch- 
man  as  poets.  It  is  noteworthy  in  the  case  of  the 
two  last  named  that  they  both  turned  to  the  Yid- 
dish from  other  literatures,  Frug  from  the  Rus- 
sian in  which,  young  though  he  was  at  the  time, 
he  had  already  won  much  recognition,  and  Frisch- 
man  from  the  Hebrew,  though  he  never  pretend- 
ed to  prefer  the  Yiddish  to  the  sacred  tongue. 
Judah  Loeb  Gordon,  too,  felt  prompted  to  produce 
a  few  poems  in  the  humble  vernacular  of  the 
masses,  while  N.  M.  Sheikevich  (Nesvizh,  Minsk, 
i85O-New  York,  1905)  under  the  name  of  S homer 
was  at  the  height  of  his  popularity  as  the  most 
productive  story-teller  of  the  time,  howsoever  lit- 


SHALOM   RABBINOVICH 

("Shalom   Aleikhem") 

(1859-1916) 


RUSSIA  187 

tie  artistic  merit  his  numerous  works  possess.  The 
most  promising  of  all  these  young  writers  of  the 
eighties  was  the  already  mentioned  Shalom  Aleik- 
hem  whose  "Stempenyu"  and  "Yosele  Solovey," 
written  in  those  years,  are  idyls  of  contempora- 
neous Jewish  life  in  Russia,  and  presage  the  great 
talent  as  a  humorist  the  author  was  to  develop 
within  the  next  two  decades.  Nearly  all  those  men, 
whether  in  their  poetry  or  their  prose  writings, 
were  largely  actuated  by  the  motive  of  enlighten- 
ing their  people.  The  most  prominent  place  as 
such,  however,  belongs  to  Isaac  Loeb  Perez  (Sa- 
moscz,  Lublin,  1851 -Warsaw,  1915)  who  very 
early  in  his  career  as  a  Yiddish  litterateur  pro- 
claimed the  education  of  the  Jewish  masses  as 
the  chief  task  of  himself  and  his  literary  col- 
leagues. "Our  programme,"  he  says  in  one  of 
his  articles,  "is  education.  We  wish  to  educate 
the  people,  to  make  wise  the  simple,  enlighten  the 
fanatical  and  turn  the  idlers  into  useful  and  hon- 
orable workers  who,  while  laboring  for  their  per- 
sonal advantage,  shall  benefit  the  community  at 
large."  To  accomplish  this  end  it  is  necessary  to 
speak  to  the  people  in  the  language  it  understands 
best.  "We  wish  to  educate  the  people  through 
the  Jargon,  because  about  three  million  souls 
among  us  understand  no  other  language.  Yet  we 
do  not  sanctify  the  Jargon.  Openly  we  sympa- 
thize with  those  who  aim  at  exchanging  it  for 
the  living  vernacular  of  the  country."  Unlike  the 
school  of  Yiddishists  which  arose  in  the  first  dec- 
ade of  the  twentieth  century,  Perez  does  not  place 
the  Yiddish  in  the  role  of  rival  to  the  Hebrew. 
Hebrew  alone,  he  tells  us,  is  the  national  tongue 
of  the  Jew,  "the  cord  holding  together  the  little 
wheels  that  they  may  not  run  apart."  "To  for- 
get the  Hebrew  language  means  to  forget  the 
Torah,  the  prophets,  the  history  of  the  Jews,  to 


l88  HISTORY   OF   THE    JEWS 

break  away,  like  the  rotten  twig  which  falls  off 
the  tree  and  disappears."  Yet  under  the  prevail- 
ing conditions  Hebrew  alone  is  inadequate  for  the 
educational  needs  of  the  people.  For  this  the 
Jargon  is  indispensable  "not  indeed  as  a  tutor  for 
the  higher  or  even  the  elementary  branches,  but 
as  a  nurse  whose  function  is  to  train  the  child  to 
sit  right,  to  take  its  first  steps,  to  utter  its  first 
sentences."  An  ingenious  poet,  sketch-writer  and 
publicist,  known  particularly  for  his  sympathetic 
descriptions  of  Hassidic  life,  Perez  stands  with 
Mendele  Mokher  Sefarim  and  Shalom  Aleikhem 
as  the  three  foremost  literary  figures  in  Yiddish, 
though  from  the  point  of  practical  usefulness  to 
his  people,  as  an  educator  and  guide,  he  greatly 
surpasses  his  two  distinguished  colleagues.* 

There  now  ensued  a  great  literary  activity  in 
Yiddish  with  Warsaw  as  its  centre,  followed 
closely  by  Vilna  and  Odessa.  In  these  cities  as 
well  as  in  St.  Petersburg  daily  papers  began  to  ap- 
pear, notably  the  "Fraind,"  "Heint,"  "Weg"  and 
"Moment"  which  for  a  time  held  the  ascendancy 
over  all  similar  publications  in  Russia.  New  talents 
steadily  made  their  appearance:  Abraham  Raisin, 
poet  and  sketch-writer;  H.  D.  Naumberg,  Shalom 
Asch,  Jonah  Rosenfeld,  P.  Hirschbein  among  the 
novelists,  and  H.  Tshemerinsky,  Dr.  Isidore 
Eliasoff,  Samuel  Tsharni  (S.  Niger),  and  Sam- 
uel Rosenfeld,  among  the  publicists  and  critics. 
Many  of  these  writers  later  emigrated  to  the 
United  States  there  to  continue  their  activities  in 
the  wider  field  of  American  Yiddish  journalism. 
Under  the  impulse  of  serving  their  brethren  there 
were  swept  into  the  Yiddish  fold  a  number  of  the 
most  noted  Hebraists,  so  that  we  soon  find  Leon 
Rabbinovich,  successor  to  Zederbaum  as  editor  of 


*  See  the  chapter  on  "America"  in  this  volume  for  the  rise  and 
growth  of  Yiddish  literature  in  the  United  States. 


ISAAC   LEIB  PEREZ 
(1851-1915) 


RUSSIA  189 

"Hameliz,"  Hillel  Zeitlin,  philosopher  and  histo- 
rian, J.  H.  Rabnitsky,  publicist,  Nahum  Sokolow,  of 
the  ^Ha-Zefirah,"  and  even  M.  L.  Lilienblum,  H.  N. 
Bialik,  Dr.  Joseph  Klausner,  David  Frischman, 
Dr.  M.  J.  Berditchevsky  and  Reuben  Brainin, 
give  much  of  their  time  to  work  in  Yiddish.  By 
this  time  the  Yiddish  had  evolved  into  a  more 
finished  dialect,  had  been  successfully  compressed 
into  an  accepted  uniformity  betokening  a  culti- 
vated language  with  fixed  rules  as  to  orthography 
and  spelling,  a  scientific  study  of  the  origin  and 
development  of  the  language  already  having  suc- 
cessfully been  made  by  Elazar  Schulman  of  Kiev. 
The  advent  of  many  new  writers  and  the  growth 
of  the  Yiddish  press  reacted  upon  the  intellectual 
development  of  the  masses  even  as  it  betokened 
the  awakening  of  a  wide-spread  interest  in  the 
language  and  its  literature.  The  more  than  three 
million  Yiddish-speaking  Jews  of  Russia,  having 
found  their  voice,  now  learned  to  think  for  them- 
selves, and  Perez  and  his  colleagues  who  set  out 
to  do  the  work  of  enlightenment,  now  found  that 
their  labors  had  been  amply  successful.  The 
various  Jewish  movements  of  the  day,  Zionism, 
Territorialism,  Socialism,  Bundism,  and  the  like 
all  had  their  followings  in  the  "Pale."  The  move- 
ments produced  their  leaders  and  these,  by  means 
of  the  Yiddish  publications,  safeguarded  and 
strengthened  the  movements.  Probably  the  most 
notable  of  these  Russian-Jewish  movements  was 
the  Socialist-Revolutionary  party,  one  of  whose 
initiators  was  Dr.  Haym  Zhitlovsky  who  wrote  a 
number  of  works  on  sociological  and  economical 
themes  and  later,  in  America,  published  his  noted 
work  on  the  history  of  philosophy.  Never  was 
Russian  Israel  more  awake  to  the  haplessness  of 
its  position  in  the  empire  nor  more  conscious  of 
its  hopes  of  ultimate  and  final  redemption,  or 


I9O  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

more  fearless  in  expressing  its  claims  and  de- 
mands, than  during  the  twenty-three  years  of  the 
dark  reign  of  Nicholas  II. 

This  son  of  Alexander  III  was  a  true  heir  to 
his  father's  despotic  character  and  particularly  to 
his  hatred  for  the  Jews,  but  at  the  same  time 
lacked  whatever  firmness  of  purpose  and  strength 
of  will  the  latter  could  claim.  The  "Imbecile 
Czar"  he  has  well  been  styled,  having  set  out 
upon  his  career  as  a  ruler  without  any  precon- 
ceived ideas  as  to  the  nature  and  magnitude  of 
his  task  and  with  none  of  the  qualifications  nec- 
essary to  bring  about  an  even  moderately  suc- 
cessful reign.  Devoid  of  all  will-power  and  with- 
out even  a  rudimentary  knowledge  of  human  na- 
ture, Nicholas  soon  fell  a  prey  to  the  machina- 
tions of  plotters  and  schemers,  and  became  a  tool 
in  the  hands  of  such  of  his  counsellors  as  had 
both  a  firmer  will  and  a  desire  to  exercise  it  over 
the  weakling  emperor.  Whatever  good  he  may 
have  sought  to  achieve  cannot  be  laid  to  any 
sincere  motive  of  altruism.  His  actions  always 
belied  his  statements — or  whatever  statements 
were  ascribed  to  him.  He  originated  the  Hague 
Peace  Tribunal;  but  shortly  thereafter,  under  the 
influence  of  the  German  government  and  the 
German-born  Czarina,  he  plunged  his  country 
into  the  disastrous  Russo-Japanese  War.  He 
granted  a  iDuma  (Parliament)  to  his  people,  but 
soon  after  provoked  the  terrible  pogroms  of  1905 
by  which  Jewish  blood  ran  in  torrents  in  the 
streets  of  innumerable  cities  and  towns.  Held  in 
the  vise  of  a  religious  fanaticism  such  as  even 
his  father  had  not  sunk  down  to,  a  hopeless  slave 
to  the  superstitions  of  the  Greek-Catholic  Church, 
Nicholas  II  submitted  to  all  sorts  of  questionable 
influences,  which,  because  exercised  in  the  name 
and  under  the  aegis  of  religion,  were  in  his  eyes 


HAYIM  NAIIMAN   BYALIK 
(b.   1873) 


RUSSIA 


sublime  and  uplifting.  Pobyedonostseff,  the  "re- 
suscitated Torquemada"  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, continued  his  baneful  influence,  but  there 
were  others.  Nicholas'  Court  became  a  place  of 
pilgrimage  for  pious  mendicants  and  shabby-look- 
ing monks  who  flocked  to  Tsarskoye-Selo  from 
all  parts  of  the  empire,  the  Czar  receiving  them 
all  with  friendly  and  pious  mien  and  elevating 
some  of  them  to  the  distinction  of  unofficial  ad- 
visers in  matters  of  state.  One  such  "monk,"  an 
ignorant,  unkempt  and  immoral  but  extremely 
shrewd  peasant  from  Siberia  by  the  name  of 
Gregory  Rasputin,  succeeded  in  so  ingratiating 
himself  with  the  emperor  and  the  empress  that  he 
was  made  an  inmate  of  the  imperial  household 
and  in  a  short  time  became  the  most  influential 
and  worst  feared  man  in  Russia,  upon  whose  fa- 
vor depended  the  fate  not  only  of  individuals  but 
of  states  and  empires  as  well.  In  the  end  Nich- 
olas was  himself  destroyed,  by  the  impossible  con- 
ditions his  darkling  regime  had  fostered  and  en- 
couraged, but  not  until  after  well-nigh  a  quarter 
of  a  century  of  the  utmost  misrule  and  after  Rus- 
sia had  been  dragged  down  into  an  abyss  from 
which  she  may  not  rise  again  for  years  and  dec- 
ades to  come. 

As  was  only  to  be  expected  the  Jews  were  the 
worst  sufferers  under  this  mediaeval  regime.  The 
old  restrictions  were  all  enforced  while  scarcely 
a  week  or  a  month  passed  without  seeing  some 
new  disabilities  added  to  the  already  intolerable 
burdens.  The  few  privileges  still  remaining  to 
Jewish  artisans,  merchants  and  professional  men 
were  one  by  one  taken  from  them.  Even  Jewish 
soldiers  serving  their  country,  when  on  a  leave  of 
absence  could  not  spend  their  furlough  outside  of 
the  "Pale,"  while  Jewish  patients  in  search  of 
health  were  barred  from  the  water  cure  resorts 


HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

(1895).  The  police-hunt  of  all  Jews  not  entitled 
to  residence  became  continuous  in  the  great  cities 
of  Kiev,  Moscow  and  St.  Petersburg,  no  Jewish 
home  being  safe  against  a  midnight  raid,  and  all 
roads  leading  to  the  "Pale"  were  clogged  with 
the  slowly-moving,  mournful  processions  of  men, 
women  and  children,  driven  back  to  the 
"Tcherta"  by  "Administrative  Order,"  under  a 
military  convoy.  In  the  entire  history  of  Jewish 
expulsions  the  most  memorable  year  is  that  of 
1897  in  the  city  of  Moscow  which  was  then  un- 
der the  rule  of  Grand  Duke  Sergius  as  Governor- 
General.  Persons  who  merely  looked  like  Jews 
were  seized  in  the  streets  in  broad  day-light  and 
deported;  even  merchants  of  the  first  Guild  were 
not  spared.  The  entire  Jewish  colony  of  Moscow 
was  uprooted  in  a  few  short  weeks,  and  syna- 
gogues and  Talmud  Torah  schools  alike  had  to 
close  their  doors.  The  taking  over  of  the  liquor 
trade  monopoly  by  the  government  in  1896  was 
a  blow  aimed  directly  at  the  Jews,  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  them  being  thus  deprived  of  their 
only  chance  of  earning  a  livelihood.  It  was  not 
done  for  the  purpose  of  saving  Christian  peasants 
from  the  immorality  of  Jewish  drinking  places, 
but  to  afford  the  government  an  additional  source 
of  revenue.  Jewish  students  were  still  further 
restricted  in  their  percentage  of  admission  to 
the  universities,  while  in  the  case  of  Jewish  wo- 
men who  wished  to  attend  some  professional 
school  outside  of  the  "Pale,"  the  conditions  im- 
posed upon  them  were  so  revolting  as  to  prove  a 
stench  in  the  nostrils  of  the  entire  community  of 
civilized  nations.  A  most  diabolical  scheme  was 
devised  to  rob  Jewish  womanhood  of  its  most 
precious  asset,  its  traditional  purity  and  chastity. 
A  Jewish  woman  could  take  up  her  home  every- 
where throughout  the  empire  only  upon  one  con- 


RUSSIA  193 

dition — that  of  a  formal  admission  of  immorality 
and  the  expression  of  willingness  to  lead  a  life  of 
shame.  Once  she  received  the  badge  of  shame  in 
the  shape  of  the  "yellow  ticket"  her  movements 
all  through  Russia  remained  unrestricted.  The 
police,  however,  was  not  content  with  this  self-im- 
posed degradation  but  kept  a  sharp  look-out  for 
all  such  women  to  make  sure  that  they  were  ac- 
tually following  their  pretended  calling,  and  many 
a  pure  Jewish  girl  was  banished  from  St.  Peters- 
burg and  other  cities  upon  the  discovery  that  her 
"passport"  was  only  a  blind  to  enable  her  to  re- 
main in  the  city  for  educational  purposes.  The 
tragedy  of  the  Jewish  woman-student  in  Russia 
is  one  of  the  most  horrifying  phases  of  this  end- 
less story  of  inhuman  oppression,  even  as  it  is  a 
grewsome  commentary  upon  the  barbarous  cyni- 
cism with  which  Russian  officialdom  scoffed  at  all 
human  decency  where  the  Jew  was  concerned. 

There,  however,  came  moments  in  the  life  of 
this  hounded  people  wrhich  were  worse  even  than 
their  innumerable  restrictions.  These  were  the 
bloody  pogroms  which  were  revived  in  the  reign  of 
Nicholas  and  which  in  their  severity  and  terrible- 
ness  transcended  even  those  of  Alexander  III. 
Beginning  with  the  riots  at  Shpola,  in  the  Kiev 
government,  in  1897,  they  soon  spread  to  South 
Russia  which  for  a  number  of  years  was  to  be- 
come the  hot-bed  of  the  anti-Jewish  agitation. 
Bloody  outbreaks  occurred  in  Kantakuzov,  Gov- 
ernment of  Kherson,  in  Nikolayev  and  other 
places,  the  climax  of  the  inhuman  crusade  being 
reached  in  the  Kishinev  massacre  of  1903.  Kish- 
inev, the  capital  of  the  Government  of  Bessarabia, 
on  the  Roumanian  Border,  had  been  the  seat  of 
a  fairly  prosperous  Jewish  community  of  50,000, 
out  of  a  general  population  of  about  three  times 
that  number.  Both  because  of  its  proximity  to 


194  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

notoriously  Antisemitic  Roumania  of  which  it  was 
itself  a  part  at  one  time,  and  because  of  the  anti- 
Jewish  policy  of  von  Plehve,  Minister  of  the  In- 
terior, which  centred  on  the  South  Russian  prov- 
inces as  the  chief  places  for  his  infamous  propa- 
ganda, Bessarabia  had  for  some  years  been  an 
unsafe  place  for  the  Jews.  A  government-sub- 
sidized newspaper,  the  "Bessarabetz,"  had  been 
started  in  1897  by  Pavolachi  Krushevan,  a  Molda- 
vian Jew-baiter,  who  kept  inflaming  the  minds  of 
the  Christian  populace  wath  fabricated  tales  of  Jew- 
ish extortions,  and  accusing  them  of  the  ritual- 
murder  practice.  The  murder  of  a  Christian  boy 
in  a  near-by  village  and  the  suicide  of  a  Christian 
girl  in  the  Jewish  hospital  at  Kishinev  served  as 
the  long-looked-for  pretext  for  an  outbreak  of 
violence.  The  pogrom  which  lasted  through  April 
19  and  20  came  after  much  careful  planning  and 
with  the  connivance  of  the  authorities  who  them- 
selves participated  in  it,  and  the  mob  was  led  to 
their  work  of  destruction  by  disguised  army  offi- 
cers and  students  of  the  priesthood  who  received 
the  blessing  of  the  Church  upon  their  murderous 
undertaking.  Forty-seven  Jews  \vere  killed,  about 
six  hundred  were  wounded,  some  of  them  very 
seriously,  while  hundreds  of  homes  were  sacked 
and  burned,  stores  were  looted  and  more  than 
two  thousand  families  were  utterly  ruined.  A  cry 
of  horror  \vent  up  all  through  the  civilized  world, 
and  in  America  the  leaders  of  the  B'nai  B'rith 
Order  circulated  a  petition  to  the  Czar  in  behalf 
of  his  Jewish  subjects,  obtaining  many  thousands 
of  signatures  from  people  representing  all  creeds, 
which  President  Roosevelt  consented  to  forward 
to  the  Russian  government  but  which  the  latter 
refused  to  receive.  The  indignation  of  the  out- 
side world  had  no  effect  upon  Russia's  rulers,  and 
when  a  number  of  the  rioters  were  brought  to 


RUSSIA  195 

justice  the  trial  proved  a  mere  judicial  farce,  as 
indeed  no  fair  trial  was  possible  under  the  cir- 
cumstances. Many  of  the  guilty  persons  were 
discharged,  while  others  were  given  ludicrously 
light  sentences.  In  summing  up  the  causes  of  the 
massacre,  the  just  and  fearless  Prince  Urusov, 
who  succeeded  von  Raaben  as  Governor  of  Bes- 
sarabia shortly  after  the  Kishinev  affair,  and  who 
was  there  during  the  trial,  states  in  his  "Memoirs" : 
"In  my  opinion,  the  central  government  cannot 
shake  off  its  moral  responsibility  for  the  slaugh- 
ter and  plunder  that  went  on  at  Kishinev.  I  con- 
sider our  government  guilty  of  encouraging  the 
narrow  nationalistic  tendencies.  It  inaugurated  a 
short-sighted  policy,  coarse  in  its  methods,  with 
regard  to  the  frontier  country  and  the  non-Slavic 
population — a  policy  fostering  among  the  several 
nationalities  mutual  distrust  and  hatred."  A  less 
guarded  statement  would  have  made  the  plain 
accusation  that  the  Russian  government  had  been 
directly  implicated  in  the  wholesale  murder  as 
was  subsequently  proven  by  the  discovery  •  of  a 
confidential  message  from  Plehve  to  governor  von 
Raaben  in  which  the  massacre  was  suggested  if 
not  authorized  outright. 

The  reign  of  terror  for  Russian  Jewry  was  to 
continue,  with  its  now  almost  monotonous  repeti- 
tions of  legal  restrictions,  official  extortions,  in- 
cendiary propaganda  in  the  press  and  from  the 
pulpit,  blood-accusations,  riots  and  massacres.  If 
the  government  of  Nicholas  II  learned  nothing 
new,  it  persisted  in  the  old  traditional  course  of 
the  autocracy  of  making  the  Jews  the  scape-goat 
for  all  the  ills  of  the  country,  the  poverty  and 
ignorance  and  general  helplessness  which  resulted 
from  its  own  tyranny,  criminal  negligence  or  stu- 
pidity. Continued  persecution  of  the  Jews  through 
legal  decrees  and  government  orders  was  to  the 


196  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

populace  a  confirmation  of  all  the  slanderous 
charges  diligently  circulated  by  government  agents 
and  was  interpreted  as  meaning  that  the  "Little 
Father"  (the  Czar)  himself  favored  the  resort  to 
violence  against  them.  Kishinev  was  followed  by 
Homel  (1904),  and  that  in  1905  by  Odessa,  Zhit- 
omir, Yelisavetgrad  and  numerous  other  cities,  the 
excesses  there  coming  as  an  aftermath  of  the 
short-lived  revolution  of  that  year  which,  while 
leading  to  the  establishment  of  a  parliament,  the 
Duma,  served  after  a  while  to  bring  about  an 
even  greater  reaction  with  the  Jews  as  its  chief 
victims.  Previous  to  that  von  Plehve  had  forbid- 
den all  Zionist  activity  in  the  empire,  thus  making 
necessary  for  Dr.  Herzl  to  journey  to  St.  Peters- 
burg to  plead  with  him  in  behalf  of  the  cause. 
An  act  of  singular  injustice  was  that  perpetrated 
during  the  Russo-Japanese  War  (1904)  when 
30,000  Jewish  soldiers,  a  number  far  out  of  pro- 
portion to  that  of  non-Jews,  were  sent  to  the  fir- 
ing line  in  the  Far  East  and  with  them  a  vast 
number  of  Jewish  physicians  thus  virtually  de- 
pleting the  Jewish  settlements  of  their  medical 
men.  Driven  to  desperation  at  this  outlawry, 
Jews  throughout  the  "Pale"  organized  themselves 
into  self-defense  societies,  and  many  cases  of 
heroism  were  cited  of  young  Jews  who  bravely 
defended  their  homes  and  the  honor  of  their 
mothers  and  sisters  during  the  repeatedly  occur- 
ring pogroms,  and  while  many  of  them  perished 
in  the  struggle  they  sold  their  lives  dearly  by  ex- 
acting a  heavy  toll  of  lives  from  their  murderous 
aggressors.  Many  of  these  youths,  as  was  but 
natural,  joined  the  general  revolutionary  move- 
ment and  became  formidable  factors  in  the  clan- 
destine struggle  against  the  autocracy,  while  the 
number  of  those  who  affiliated  with  the  "Bund," 


RUSSIA  197 

the   Jewish    revolutionary   organization,    grew    as 
never  before. 

The  closing  years  of  Nicholas'  bloody  reign 
were  to  remain  still  more  infamously  memorable 
by  the  ghastly  Beilis  affair,  the  ritual-murder  ac- 
cusation which,  in  its  brazen-faced  assumption  of 
the  general  practice  of  religious  crimes  on  the 
part  of  the  Jews,  and  in  the  thoroughgoing  me- 
disevalism  which  attended  all  of  its  phases,  be- 
came a  source  of  horror  to  all  the  world  including 
even  such  Christian  countries  as  Germany,  Aus- 
tria-Hungary and  France  where  Antisemitism  had 
been  preaching  its  poisonous  doctrines  for  many 
years.  Because  of  the  interest  it  aroused  all 
through  Europe  and  America,  exposing  as  noth- 
ing else  did  the  black  heart  of  Russia  and  the 
complete  savagery  to  which  it  had  been  reduced, 
it  is  necessary  that  the  story  of  the  Beilis  martyr- 
dom be  told  here  in  greater  detail.  A  twelve- 
year-old  Christian  boy,  Andrey  Yuschinsky  by 
name,  disappeared  from  his  home  near  Kiev  on 
the  morning  of  March  n,  1911,  but  no  notice  was 
taken  of  his  absence  until  three  days  later  when 
the  police  were  notified  and  the  newspapers  were 
asked  to  report  the  matter.  Thirteen  days  later 
the  body  was  discovered  by  school  boys  in  a  cave 
in  the  Lukyanovka  suburb,  about  five  miles  from 
the  Yuschinsky  home.-  The  autopsy  which  was 
performed  three  days  later  showed  that  Andrey's 
hands  had  been  tied  behind  his  back  and  that  the 
body  had  been  mutilated  in  several  places.  These 
circumstances  were  sufficient  to  raise  the  ritual- 
murder  cry  in  a  community  where  the  legend  had 
long  been  one  of  the  prevailing  superstitions.  The 
charge  launched  at  first  against  the  Kiev  Jews 
as  a  whole  was  later  to  narrow  itself  down  to  an 
individual  Jew  by  the  name  of  Mendel  Beilis. 
Not  that  there  was  any  specific  evidence  against 


198  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

Beilis  but  the  now  inflamed  popular  passion  had 
to  be  gratified  by  the  production  of  the  culprit 
who  in  his  person  was  to  embody  the  criminality 
of  the  entire  Jewish  community.  Liberalism  had 
been  making  headway  in  Russia  despite  all  gov- 
ernmental hindrances,  and  in  the  Duma  the  pro- 
gressive elements  were  advocating  the  abolition 
of  the  "Pale,"  even  going  to  the  extent  of  intro- 
ducing a  bill  to  that  effect.  This  was  too  much 
for  the  autocracy  to  whom  the  presence  in  the 
empire  of  an  outlawed  population  like  the  Jewish 
on  whom  the  pent-up  fury  of  a  politically  oppressed- 
nation  could  vent  itself,  was  a  vital  necessity  for  its 
own  safety.  The  Jews  had  to  be  discredited,  and 
the  Yuschinsky  murder  offered  a  splendid  opportu- 
nity toward  this  end.  An  Antisemitic  member  of 
the  Duma  by  the  name  of  Markoff  II  went  to 
Kiev,  studied  the  details  of  the  case,  urged  that 
the  body  be  disinterred  and  re-examined,  and  then 
returned  to  the  capital  to  set  in  action  the  Black 
Hundred  organizations,  to  avenge  themselves  upon 
the  Jews  for  this  alleged  latest  crime  against  the 
Christians.  This  assertion  of  the  guilt  of  the 
Jews,  coming  from  a  Duma  member,  had  the 
semblance  of  governmental  authorization,  serv- 
ing to  discourage  the  officials  in  their  search  for 
the  real  murderers.  The  clue  which  at  first  led 
to  the  very  mother  and  stepfather  of  the  boy  was 
abandoned,  and  they  were  released  from  custody. 
Instead  attention  was  wholly  directed  to  the  Kiev 
Jews.  On  the  eve  of  Easter  there .  appeared  in 
"Zemschina,"  the  Black  Hundred  organ  of  St. 
Petersburg,  a  letter  from  Kiev  bearing  on  the 
Yuschinsky  case,  in  which  the  statement  was 
made  that  "all  the  facts  in  connection  with  this 
murder  show  without  doubt  that  we  have  here  a 
case  of  ritual-murder  committed  by  the  Jewish 
sect  of  the  "Hassidim."  The  accusation  was  taken 


MENDEL  BEILIS 


RUSSIA 


199 


up  by  other  Antisemitic  organs,  and  the  efforts  of 
Fenenko  and  Krasovsky,  special  investigators 
for  the  government  in  discovering  the  real  crim- 
inal was  blocked.  When  Krasovsky  finally 
reached  the  conclusion  that  all  the  evidence  in 
hand  pointed  to  the  house  of  Vera  Cheberiak,  a 
den  of  prostitution  and  a  rendezvous  of  criminals, 
he  was  plainly  told  by  the  Department  of  Justice 
to  "find  a  Jew,"  and  this  attitude  of  the  govern- 
ment caused  him,  conscientious  official  that  he 
was,  to  resign.  The  "search  for  the  Jew"  was  be- 
gun by  other  officials  who  were  willing  to  lend 
themselves  as  tools  to  the  government.  They  soon 
found  him  in  Beilis,  a  clerk  in  the  Zaitseff  brick- 
works which  were  near  the  place  where  Yuschin- 
sky's  body  was  discovered.  The  investigation  re- 
vealed nothing  to  lend  plausibility  to  the  sus- 
picion that  Beilis  had  anything  to  do  with  the 
crime.  Nevertheless  he  was  arrested  (July  22) 
and  imprisoned  on  the  technical  charge  of  being  a 
political  offender.  The  charge  of  murder  was  not 
formally  placed  against  him  until  two  weeks  later, 
when  the  authorities,  now  that  the  looked-for  prey 
was  in  their  hands,  had  had  time  to  gather  from 
questionable  sources  the  "testimony"  they  needed 
for  the  implication  of  this  wholly  innocent  man. 
With  satanic  ingenuity  the  dark  forces  of  the  gov- 
ernment gave  themselves  to  the  task  of  proving  that 
Beilis  was  but  an  agent  of  the  entire  Jewish  race 
which  is  still  slaughtering  Christian  children  for  the 
Passover  rite.  The  pusillanimous  Czar  kept  in  per- 
sonal touch  with  the  situation  as  it  developed  from 
day  to  day,  and  his  attitude  encouraged  the  official 
malefactors  in  their  deliberate  perversion  of  jus- 
tice. Nicholas  himself  came  to  Kiev  at  the  very 
time  the  agitation  against  Beilis  and  the  Jews  was 
at  its  highest,  and  was  doubtless  gratified  to  learn 
from  Scheglovitoff,  the  then  Minister  of  Justice, 


2OO  HISTORY   OF   THE   JEWS 

that  the  Yuschinsky  case  was  no  ordinary  crime, 
but  a  ritual  murder.  The  murder  by  a  Jewish 
nihilist  of  his  Prime  Minister  Stolypin  in  his  pres- 
ence, while  attending  a  performance  in  the  City 
Theatre  of  Kiev,  could  only  aggravate  his  inimi- 
cal disposition  toward  the  Jews,  and  he  welcomed 
the  Beilis  case  as  an  opportunity  for  justifying 
further  repressions  against  the  hated  race.  It 
mattered  little  to  him  that  his  own  investigators 
could  find  no  real  evidence  against  Beilis,  nor 
was  he  concerned  at  the  possibility  of  dragging 
still  further  into  the  mire  the  already  soiled  repu- 
tation of  Russian  justice.  To  him  this  unusual 
affair  presented  an  indictment  against  the  people 
he  hated  most,  and  he  ordered  Beilis  prosecuted 
despite  the  entire  groundlessness  of  the  accusa- 
tion. The  Department  of  Justice,  it  need  scarcely 
be  stated,  was  only  too  glad  to  do  the  bidding 
of  the  autocrat.  Beilis  was  ordered  tried  on  Sep- 
tember 25,  1913,  and  the  entire  judicial  machinery 
was  now  employed  to  prove  the  Jewish  religious 
criminality  of  the  case.  Only  such  witnesses  were 
admitted  whose  testimony  was  known  to  be  ad- 
verse to  the  defendant  while  scientific  "experts" 
were  discovered  in  a  notorious  Antisemite,  Prof. 
Sikorsky,  and  in  Pranaitis,  a  discredited  Catholic 
priest,  who  posed  as  an  authority  on  Judaism 
from  his  knowledge  of  the  Talmud  and  his  ac- 
quaintance with  Jewish  religious  customs. 

Against  these  criminal  perverters  of  justice 
there  was  arrayed  a  galaxy  of  brilliant  men 
from  the  legal  profession,  both  Jews  and  Gentiles, 
who  had  the  courage  of  their  convictions  and  the 
fearlessness  to  espouse  the  cause  of  the  Jews  in 
the  face  of  the  certain  displeasure  and  vindictive- 
ness  of  the  Czar's  government.  Margolin, 
Gruzenberg,  Zarudny,  Karabtchevsky  and  Makla- 
koff  led  the  fight  for  the  defense  assisted  by  the 


RABBI  JACOB  MAZEH 


RUSSIA  2O I 

expert  testimony  "of  the  noted  Christian  scholars, 
Professors  Troitzky  and  Glagoleff,  who  proved 
upon  the  statements  of  the  Talmud  itself  and  as 
against  the  baseless  assertions  of  Pranaitis,  that 
Judaism  forbade  the  use  even  of  animal  blood  to 
its  devotees.  Another  expert  witness  was  Rabbi 
Jacob  Mazeh,  the  learned  rabbi  of  the  Moscow 
community,  who  appeared  before  the  jurors 'with 
a  wealth  of  scholarly  arguments  to  prove  the  hu- 
mane spirit  with  which  Jewish  doctrine  was  in- 
formed. One  by  one  they  refuted  the  testimony 
of  all  the  witnesses  called  by  the  prosecution,  as- 
sisted in  this  by  the  results  obtained  by  the  private 
investigations  that  had  been  made  by  the  honest 
Krasovsky,  the  former  Chief  of  Police  for  Kiev, 
and  Brazul-Brushkofsky,  which  clearly  pointed  to 
Vera  Cheberiak,  the  leading  witness  for  the  prose- 
cution, as  the  actual  murderer  of  Yuschinsky.  The 
case  so  laboriously  built  up  against  the  Jews,  the 
Hassidim,  and  the  "man  with  a  black  beard"  which 
was  all  the  identification  the  authorities  could  cite 
for  the  implication  of  Beilis,  collapsed  like  a  house 
of  cards,  and  even  a  Russian  jury  could  see  through 
the  entire  flimsiness  of  the  accusation.  After  a 
trial  lasting  thirty-four  days  at  which  hundreds 
of  witnesses  and  experts  were  heard,  a  verdict 
of  not  guilty  was  returned,  to  the  great  dismay  of 
the  Czar  and  his  Ministers,  and  the  evident  sur- 
prise of  the  entire  civilized  world,  which  expected 
only  a  conviction  from  a  Russian  tribunal.  In 
reality  the  scandal  of  the  Beilis  trial  was  so 
nefarious  as. to  prove  too  revolting  even  for  Rus- 
sia where  the  national  conscience  had  long  be- 
come hardened  against  all  appeals  for  justice 
where  Jews  were  concerned.  The  better  elements 
of  the  nation  smarted  under  the  indignity  thus 
placed  upon  it  and  its  hopeless  degradation  in  the 
eyes  of  civilized  Europe.  Even  Shulgin,  the  Anti- 


2O2  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

Semitic  Editor  of  "Kievlyanin,"  the  influential 
Kiev  daily,  felt  constrained  to  protest  against  the 
disgraceful  proceedings,  while  in  St.  Petersburg 
one  hundred  and  twenty  members  of  the  local 
Bar  Association  affixed  their  names  to  a  protest 
at  the  unfairness  with  which  the  trial  was  con- 
ducted. 

But  Nicholas  and  his  government  were  not  con- 
tent to  abide  by  the  decision  of  the  jurors.  Beilis 
was  indeed  freed  and  allowed  to  be  spirited  out 
of  the  country  by  the  aid  of  friends  who  pro- 
vided passage  for  himself  and  his  family  to  the 
Holy  Land.  His  defenders,  however,  were  to 
feel  the  heavy  hand  of  the  autocracy.  Many  of 
the  eminent  lawyers  who  aided  him  were  im- 
prisoned or  at  best  disbarred,  among  the  former 
being  Alexander  F.  Kerensky,  who  later  became 
the  head  of  the  Provisional  Government  when  the 
Czar  was  overthrown,  while  Troitzky  was  forced 
to  resign  from  his  professorship  at  the  St.  Peters- 
burg Theological  Seminary.  Imprisonment  was 
also  the  lot  of  Krasofsky,  Brazul-Brushkofsky, 
Mistchuk,  Shulgin  and  others.  At  the  same  time 
rewards  in  various  forms  were  handed  out  to 
many  who  were  active  in  the  prosecution.  Prana- 
itis  was  recommended,  though  without  success, 
for  a  bishopric,  and  a  large  sum  of  money  was 
raised  for  the  erection  of  a  church  upon  the 
grave  of  Yuschinsky  as  a  Christian  martyr 
at  the  hands  of  the  fanatical  and  blood-thirsty 
Jews. 

At  about  the  time  the  Beilis  affair  was  claiming 
the  attention  of  the  world,  there  was  one  large 
section  of  Russian  Jewry  upon  whom  the  heavy 
burden  of  Jewish  rightlessness  was  weighing  even 
more  heavily  than  upon  all  the  rest  of  their 
brethren.  This  was  the  Jewish  community  of 
Poland.  For  the  plight  of  the  Jews  of  Poland 


COLONEL   BEREK  JOSELOWICZ 
(d.   1809) 


RUSSIA  2O3 

both  the  Russian  autocracy  and  the  native  Polish 
population  are  responsible.  For  a  long  time 
Polish  Jewry  found  itself  rather  more  happily 
situated  than  the  other  Jews  of  the  empire,  owing 
to  historic  traditions  which  favored  the  Jews  who 
had  been  living  in  the  land  since  the  thirteenth 
century,  and  to  the  oppression  of  the  Poles  by 
the  Russians  which  brought  them  the  active  sym- 
pathy and  help  of  their  Jewish  compatriots.  Com- 
mon suffering  served  to  bring  the  two  elements 
closely  together  and  in  Polish  literature  the  Jew 
was  most  favorably  portrayed  by  Adam  Mickie- 
vicz,  Poland's  greatest  poet,  and  Eliza  Orzeszko, 
the  George  Eliot  of  the  Polish  literature.  That 
Jews  were  truly  patriotic  Poles  could  be  seen 
from  the  active  part  they  took  in  the  various  cam- 
paigns for  Polish  independence.  They  fought 
under  Kosciuszko  in  1794,  when  they  organized  a 
separate  Jewish  regiment,  headed  by  that  valiant 
Jew,  Colonel  Berek  Joselowicz  who,  spared  during 
the  war,  was  fated  to  lose  his  life  for  Poland's 
cause  in  the  campaign  of  1809.  In  the  uprisings 
against  the  Czar  both  of  1831  and  1863  Jews  took 
a  leading  part,  a  Jew  by  the  name  of  Wohl  serv- 
ing as  the  treasurer  of  Poland's  last  Revolution- 
ary Government.  That  Christians  and  Jews  in 
Poland  felt  themselves  united  in  their  common 
love  for  the  fatherland  was  instanced  in  the 
streets  of  Warsaw  in  1862,  when  the  Polish  na- 
tional anthem  was  sung  by  Jews  in  the  Catholic 
churches  and  by  Christians  in  the  synagogues,  a 
Jewish  lad  being  the  one  to  raise  the  cross  that 
had  fallen  from  the  hands  of  a  priest  shot  down 
by  the  Russian  troops,  and  to  lead  the  procession 
to  the  church.  But  this  happy  condition  ulti- 
mately led  to  much  evil.  In  the  course  of  the  de- 
cades many  Jews  in  Poland  became  so  thoroughly 
Polonized  as  to  lose  consciousness  of  all  Jewish 


2O4  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

ties  save  those  of  a  Jewish  religion  which  itself 
sat  very  lightly  upon  their  shoulders.  The  ugliest 
form  of  Jewish  assimilation  revealed  itself  among 
the  native  Jews  of  Warsaw,  Lodz,  and  other 
large  centres  where,  but  for  their  interest  in  Jew- 
ish communal  charities,  they  were  no  longer  sen- 
tient members  of  a  distinctive  Jewish  group,  but 
regarded  themselves  as  "Poles  of  the  Mosaic 
faith,"  an  inalienable  part  of  the  Polish  nation, 
despite  their  knowledge  that  Roman  Catholic  Poles 
scorned  and  resented  such  a  classification  on  the 
part  of  Jews.  The  gross  ignorance  of  all  matters 
Jewish  on  the  part  of  the  Polish  Jews  did  its  ut- 
most to  deaden  whatever  attachment  to  their  race 
as  such  there  may  have  survived  in  their  midst 
from  the  days  of  a  pious,  learned,  and  therefore 
more  Jewishly  conscious  generation. 

During  the  reign  of  Alexander  III  Poland 
served  as  a  territorial  outlet  for  the  congested 
and  poverty-stricken  cities  of  Lithuania.  Hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  Lithuanian  Jews  wended 
their  way  to  Poland,  where  conditions  were  more 
favorable,  thus  gradually  increasing  the  Jewish 
population  of  the  land  to  one-seventh  of  the  to- 
tal inhabitants  at  the  end  of  the  first  decade  of 
the  twentieth  century,  and  augmenting  the  num- 
ber of  the  Jews  in  Warsaw  to  about  one-third  of 
the  general  population.  These  Jews  brought  with 
them  considerable  Jewish  learning  and  a  superla- 
tive degree  of  enthusiasm  for  all  of  the  historic 
achievements  of  the  Jewish  race-genius.  Due  to 
them  Warsaw  became  the  chief  seat  of  Hebrew 
literary  activity  in  Russia,  superseding  in  this  re- 
spect Vilna,  for  many  decades  the  stronghold  of 
the  Russian  Haskalah  movement,  and  long  hold- 
ing out  against  Odessa  which,  since  the  nineties 
of  the  last  century,  had  become  its.  formidable 
rival.  The  Lithuanian  Jews  were  thus  the  leaven 


RUSSIA  205 

that  came  to  resuscitate  the  dying  soul  of  Polish 
Jewry.     But,  as  in  the  nature  of  the  case  was  in- 
evitable, they  also  brought  along  with  them  a  so- 
cial .and  economic  problem  which  affected  the  na- 
tive  Jews    of    Poland    as    well    as    the    Christian 
Poles.     They  crowded  into  huge  ghettos  and  per- 
sisted in  the  manner  of  living  in  vogue  in  their 
home  towns.     Their  courageous  display  of  their 
Jewishness,   as  shown  in  religious  rites  and  tra- 
ditional observances,  offended  the  Christians  and 
caused  anxiety  and  fear  to  the  native  and  assimi- 
lated Jewish  element.     In  course  of  time  the  word 
Litvak    (i.   e.,   the  man  coming  from  Lithuania) 
became  a  term  of  abuse  which,  while  applied  by 
the   Polish  Jews  only  to  their  Lithuanian  co-re- 
ligionists, was  often  indiscriminately  used  by  the 
Christians  for  the  stigmatization  of  the  entire  race. 
The  Czar's  government  found  it  to  its  interest 
to   widen  the  breach  between  the  Poles  and  the 
Jews.     On  the  one  hand  it  encouraged  the  migra- 
tion   of    Lithuanian   Jews    into    Poland,    and,    on 
the   other   hand,    it   instigated   the   Poles   against 
these  Jews  by  laying  upon  the  latter  the  blame  for 
all   of   Poland's   economic   troubles.      Because   of 
their  intense  hatred  of  Russia  these  Poles  were 
blind  enough  to  turn  upon  the  Lithuanian  Jews, 
many  of  whom  spoke  Russian  more  fluently  than 
Polish,    accusing   them    as    agents    in    the    Czar's 
scheme  for  the  Russification  of  the  land.     Soon 
all  other  Jews  of  the  land  came  under  the  ban 
of    their    displeasure.    Themselves    politically    op- 
pressed the  Poles,  in  a  rage  of  impotence,  turned 
to  the  Jews  as  to  the  cause  of  their  misfortunes, 
though   better   judgment   should   have   told   them 
that    the    presence    of    many    of    these    Jews    in 
Poland,    even    as    the    very    economic    conditions 
they  helped  to  create,  were  but  the  result  of  Rus- 
sia's  despotism   and  misgovernment.      So  rabidly 


2O6  HISTORY   OF   THE   JEWS 

vindictive  did  the  Polish  Antisemites  become, 
among  these  some  of  the  most  prominent  intellec- 
tual leaders  of  the  nation,  that  they  would  not 
stop  to  consider  the  injury  their  course  was  sure 
to  bring  to  Poland  itself,  if  only  they  could  ruin 
the  Jews.  A  well-known  politician,  Roman  Dmow- 
ski,  established  in  Warsaw  a  daily  newspaper 
by  the  name  of  "Dwa  Grosszy"  (Two  Grosz 
Paper),  which  became  the  cesspool  of  all  the 
journalistic  filth  of  Polish  Antisemitism  and  be- 
fore long  brought  irreparable  injury  to  the  Jews 
of  Poland. 

The  crisis  was  precipitated  in  1912  during  the 
elections  to  the  Fourth  Duma.  The  three  hun- 
dred thousand  Jews  of  Warsaw  had  the  majority 
of  the  electors  of  that  great  city  and  could  there- 
fore elect  their  own  candidate.  They,  however, 
hesitated  to  put  up  a  Jewish  candidate  for  fear  of 
still  further  provoking  the  ire  of  the  Christians, 
nor  could  they  conscientiously  support  the  candi- 
date of  the  Polish  Nationalist  party  ("The  Na- 
tional Democrats"),  who  was  a  pronounced  Jew- 
baiter  and  ran  on  an  Antisemitic  platform.  They 
settled  on  a  Socialist  candidate,  an  obscure  and 
mediocre  man  by  the  name  of  Jagello  who,  be- 
cause a  Roman  Catholic  and  a  Pole,  was  deemed 
by  the  Jews  a  fit  man  to  compromise  on.  Jagello 
was  elected,  but  the  Jews  were  made  to  rue  the 
day  of  their  triumph.  Impotent  to  strike  at  them 
politically,  the  Poles  gnashed  their  teeth  and  de- 
cided upon  an  economic  war.  Since  1905  the 
Russian  government  had  legalized  the  Co-opera- 
tive Consumers'  Associations  of  Poland  which 
were  called  into  being  for  the  avowed  purpose  of 
self-defense  against  the  Jews.  These  associa- 
tions were  now  to  be  made  use  of  to  tighten  the 
economic  noose  around  the  neck  of  the  Jews.  A 
boycott  against  Jewish  merchants  was  proclaimed 


RUSSIA 


and  most  rigorously  executed  in  every  community 
of  the  land.  Pickets  were  placed  outside  Jewish 
shops  to  prevent,  by  force  if  need  be,  any  Chris- 
tians from  going  there.  Jews  were  not  safe  in 
the  streets  and  countless  murders  of  defenseless 
Jews  were  perpetrated  with  impunity.  In  the 
town  of  Welun  peasants  set  fire  to  the  house  of 
a  Jew  at  night,  the  entire  family  perishing  in  the 
flames.  The  Russian  police,  even  where  willing, 
found  itself  impotent  to  stop  the  outrages,  the 
Polish  press  and  the  clergy  continuing  to  inflame 
the  passions  of  the  mobs.  When  Beilis  was  ac- 
quitted the  Polish  news  organs  lost  no  time  in 
informing  the  public  that  the  ritual-murder  prac- 
tice of  the  Jews  had  been  satisfactorily  proved 
in  spite  of  the  verdict  of  the  jury.  In  vain  did 
Ladislaus  Mickievicz,  the  worthy  son  of  a  great 
father,  endeavor  to  make  his  countrymen  see 
straight  at  a  meeting  he  convened  in  Warsaw. 
The  Polish  newspapers  of  the  city  would  not 
even  report  his  address  on  that  occasion.  Polish 
Jewry  soon  found  itself  utterly  ruined — the  vic- 
tim not  exactly  of  Polish  Christian  malevolence 
which  was  only  a  tool  in  the  hands  of  the  St. 
Petersburg  bureaucracy,  but  of  the  unremitting 
and  inexorable  Jew-hatred  of  Nicholas  and  his 
advisers,  bent  upon  causing  the  discomfiture  and 
extermination  of  the  Jews  no  matter  what  the 
means. 

The  Polish  outrage  and  the  Beilis  affairs  were, 
however,  the  last  of  the  series  of  great  crimes 
perpetrated  by  Nicholas  against  the  Jews.  Less 
than  ten  months  after  the  acquittal  of.  the  Jewish 
martyr  at  Kiev  came  the  Great  War — itself  in  no 
small  measure  a  result  of  the  stupidity  and  mis- 
management of  the  ruler  who  will  forever  go 
down  in  history  as  the  worst  of  autocrats  Rus- 
sia was  ever  afflicted  with.  Russia  was  in  no  con- 


2O8  HISTORY   OF   THE   JEWS 

dition  to  wage  war  against  so  mighty  an  ad- 
versary as  Germany,  or  even  a  weaker  foe,  and 
the  outbreak  of  hostilities  on  August  i,  1914* 
meant  the  beginning  of  the  end  of  Nicholas'  rule 
and  of  the  Romanoff  dynasty  itself.  One  by  one 
the  great  cities  of  Poland  and  Lithuania  fell  be- 
fore the  resistless  advance  of  the  German  hosts 
and  after  two  years  of  fighting  nearly  all  of  the 
Polish  territory  annexed  to  Russia  in  the  days  of 
Catharine  the  Great  and  Alexander  I,  besides 
much  of  Courland  and  Livonia,  was  in  the 
hands  of  the  Germans.  It  is  true  that  if  the 
Jews  of  those  occupied  provinces  at  first  rejoiced 
at  the  unexpected  liberation  from  the  yoke  of 
Czardom,  their  joy  was  short-lived  since  the  Ger- 
mans proved  themselves  no  kinder  in  their  treat- 
ment, and  the  harsh  military  rule  they  established 
was  a  burden  of  almost  crushing  weight.  The 
Poles,  too,  still  nursing  their  fierce  anti-Jewish 
passion,  saw  in  the  German  invasion  an  oppor- 
tunity for  squaring  accounts  with  the  Jews.  They 
denounced  them  successively  to  both  Russians 
and  Germans  as  spies  and  traitors,  and  had  the 
grim  satisfaction  of  seeing  thousands  of  them 
executed  or  otherwise  murdered  in  the  gen- 
eral unrest  and  turmoil  incidental  to  the  war. 
Things  were  even  worse  in  Russia  where  the 
Jews  became  the  target  of  a  drunken  and  mur- 
derous soldiery,  the  savage  cossacks  wreaking  a 
fearful  vengeance  upon  whole  communities,  spar- 
ing neither  old  nor  young,  desecrating  syna- 
gogues and  murdering  rabbis  and  other  com- 
munal dignitaries  along  with  their  humbler 
brethren.  Tens  of  thousands  of  Jews  from  the 
"Pale"  were  driven  from  their  homes  and  left  to 
perish  from  hunger  and  cold  on  all  of  the  high- 
ways leading  to  the  interior  of  Russia.  Starva- 
tion and  disease  began  to  stalk  abroad,  decimat- 


RUSSIA  2O9 

ing  the  wretched  populace  by  the  thousands  and 
leaving  in  their  wake  deserted  and  ruined  homes 
where  populous  and  industrious  communities  had 
existed  before.  It  was  the  hour  of  thickest  dark- 
ness before  the  oncoming  dawn.  The  war  which, 
as  interpreted  by  all  belligerents  alike,  came  to 
give  freedom  to  small  and  subdued  nationalities, 
was  to  liberate  also  the  Jews.  If  the  Jews  were 
to  continue  to  suffer  from  the  general  economic 
hardships,  at  least  they  were  henceforth  to  suffer 
as  free  men  and  not  as  slaves,  and  their  suffering- 
was  to  be  mitigated  by  the  knowledge  that  it  was 
a  part  of  the  general  travail  of  the  entire  Rus- 
sian nation. 

The  great  hour  of  freedom  struck  on  the  I5th 
of  March,  1917,  a  date  which,  whatever  the  out- 
come of  the  present  struggle  in  Russia  for  a  safe 
and  stable  government,  will  forever  remain  as 
memorable  in  the  history  of  the  world  as  was  the 
day  in  1/89  when  the  French  people  overthrew  the 
despotism  of  the  Bourbons  and  in  the  burning  of 
the  Bastille  proclaimed  a  new  era  of  liberty, 
equality  and  fraternity.  On  that  day  in  March, 
Czar  Nicholas's  train  was  stopped  near  the  Pskov 
station,  and  a  committee  from  the  Duma  came  to 
tell  the  erstwhile  all-powerful  despot  that  his  rule 
was  at  an  end,  forcing  him  to  put  his  signature 
to  an  edict  of  abdication.  With  a  stroke  of  his 
pen  Nicholas  undid  the  thousand-year-old  fet- 
ters of  the  Russian  people  and  henceforth  all 
races  and  nationalities  of  the  vast  empire  were 
to  remain  free  to  live  their  own  life  in  keeping 
with  their  cherished  beliefs,  traditions  and  ideals. 
Israel  in  Russia  suddenly  found  itself  lifted  out 
of  its  oppression  and  degradation,  and  events 
hardly  ever  hoped  for  by  the  six  million  Jews  of 
the  empire  now  came  to  pass  with  astounding- 
rapidity.  On  March  30  all  restrictions  were  re- 


2IO  HISTORY   OF    THE    JEWS 

moved  from  Jews  in  the  army  and  navy,  while  on 
April  5  was  issued  the  general  emancipation  de- 
cree abolishing  all  limitations  of  race  and  religion, 
and  granting  to  all  inhabitants  of  the  land  free- 
dom of  residence  and  movement,  of  property 
ownership,  of  commercial,  industrial  and  profes- 
sional pursuits,  of  education,  of  the  use  of  any 
language  or  dialect  at  choice,  and  of  participation 
in  the  government.  The  terrible  nightmare  of 
unequalled  political  oppression  for  180  millions  of 
human  beings  was  finally  ended,  and  Jews,  along 
with  all  other  men,  could  at  last  breathe  the  air 
of  freedom  even  in  Russia. 

The  great  Russian  revolution  has  not  yet 
brought  to  Russia  the  national  happiness  which 
ordinarily  forms  part  of  political  liberty.  The 
state  is  still  going  through  the  throes  of  a  new 
birth,  and  the  Bolsheviki  government  of  Lenine 
and  Trotzky  shows  scarcely  greater  promise  of 
stability  than  did  the  more  conservative  regime 
of  Kerensky  which  preceded  it.  There  are  still, 
doubtless,  many  days  of  material  suffering  and 
moral  anguish  in  store  for  that  great  land,  and 
the  Jews,  too,  will  have  their  share  of  tribulation 
and  of  sacrifice  with  all  the  other  component 
parts  of  the  empire.  Russia  may  fall  apart  into 
a  great  number  of  factions  which  may  or  may 
not  federate  into  a  union  on  the  model  of  the 
United  States,  in  which  case  the  position  of  the 
Jews  would  be  materially  affected.  Yet  whatever 
the  result  of  the  present  turmoil  and  chaos,  there 
is  no  likelihood  that  the  freedom  already  gained 
will  ever  be  lost  again.  The  historic  rule  that 
"Revolutions  never  go  backwards"  is  one  to  which 
even  Russia  can  prove  no  exception.  Least  of  all 
is  there  any  likelihood  that  Russian  Jewry  will 
ever  again  be  put  in  bondage.  The  "Pale"  will 
remain  a  mere  memory  as  unpleasant  as  is  that 


RUSSIA  211 

of  the  ghetto  in  Frankfort  or  in  Rome,  but  like 
them  as  buoyant  a  reminder  of  the  steady  and 
inevitable  march  of  progress  and  justice.  Polit- 
ical emancipation  may  not  bring  much  of  an 
abatement  of  Jew-hatred  in  Russia  any  more  than 
it  did  in  Germany  or  France,  and  we  may  even 
look  forward  to  a  renewal  of  anti-Jewish  hostili- 
ties with  all  of  their  old-time  excesses  and  hor- 
rors. To  the  Russian  people,  as  to  the  world  at 
large,  the  Jews  will  still  remain  an  exotic  plant  in 
their  midst,  one,  perhaps,  to  be  admired  and  hon- 
ored but,  at  the  same  time,  also  to  be  suspected  and 
feared.  The  prejudices  of  two  thousand  years 
will  not  be  removed  in  a  day.  But  these,  too, 
will  begin  to  wane  once  the  Zionist  ideal  has  be- 
come a  reality  and  at  least  a  portion  of  the  Jews, 
be  it  ever  so  small,  has  been  given  the  opportun- 
ity to  repossess  itself  of  a  homeland  of  its  own 
upon  the  soil  of  the  fathers  in  Palestine — an  as- 
piration which,  in  the  light  of  recent  develop- 
ments, seems  most  likely  of  realization.*  In  the 
meanwhile  the  freedom  now  possessed  by  these 
six  million  Jews  will  make  for  a  deepened  and 
intensified  Jewishness.  Unlike  their  brethren  in 
the  west  of  Europe  and  in  America  emancipation 
with  them,  unless  all  signs  fail,  will  not  make  for 
assimilation  and  de-judaization.  Ten  months  of 
freedom  have  only  served  to  make  the  Jew  in 
Russia  more  loyal  to  his  spiritual  heritage,  more 
anxious  to  uphold  traditions  revered  and  treas- 
ured by  his  forefathers  for  thousands  of  years, 
and  more  determined  to  make  real  and  permanent 
the  new  life  which  is  opening  up  to  him  in  the 
light  and  spirit  of  Jewish  nationalism.  Hebraism 
with  its  manifold  connotations  will  receive  a  new 
meaning  and  impetus  under  the  new  conditions, 
and  Jewry  the  world  over  will  be  brought  under 
its  spell  and  lastingly  benefit  by  it. 

*  See  the  concluding  chapter  of  this  work. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE   BALKAN    STATES 

A  final,  though  not  the  least  important,  chap- 
ter of  the  history  of  the  Jews  in  Europe  is  that  of 
the  Jews  in  the  Balkan  countries.  Theirs  is  a 
story  not  dissimilar  to  that  of  the  other  lands 
in  which  the  Jews  suffered,  strove  and  advanced. 
If,  when  compared  with  their  brethren  in  other 
lands,  the  Balkan  Jews  have  but  little  to  show  by 
way  of  scholarship,  commercial  prosperity,  or 
political  statesmanship,  then  is  the  reason  for  it 
not  that  of  inferiority  of  stock  but  rather  of 
paucity  of  numbers.  To  this  day,  though  repre- 
senting a  history  stretching  for  many  hundreds 
of  years  and,  as  in  the  case  of  Greece  and  Rou- 
mania,  even  going  back  to  the  very  time  of 
Roman  dominion,  the  Jews  of  the  Balkan  States 
are  but  a  very  small  portion  of  the  entire  popula- 
tion and  the  tendency  among  them  in  recent  years, 
due  to  emigration  and  other  causes,  has  been  to 
decrease  rather  than  to  grow  in  numbers. 

The  nineteenth  century  opens  upon  a  Balkan 
Jewry  agitated  by  indecision  and  fear  because  of 
the  unrest  against  the  Turkish  rule.  The  Turks, 
it  is  true,  were  not  the  very  best  of  masters;  the 
Christians,  however,  were  sure  to  be  worse.  If 
the  Turks  did  not  love  the  Jews,  neither  did  they 
hate  them,  and  as  compared  with  their  attitude 
toward  their  subject  Christian  nationalities  the 

212 


THE    BALKAN    STATES  213 

treatment  of  the  Jews  at  their  hands  had  been 
decidedly  friendly.  Jews  can  never  forget  that 
at  the  time  of  the  Spanish  expulsion  in  1492, 
when  they  were  driven  from  one  Christian  land 
only  to  find  the  doors  of  most  other  Christian 
lands  barred  against  them,  it  was  Turkey,  then 
at  the  zenith  of  her  military  power  and  prestige, 
who  opened  her  gates  to  the  wandering  and  foot- 
sore tribe,  and  gave  them  a  home  within  her  do- 
main. It  was  of  those  Spanish  and  Portuguese 
exiles  that  the  Jewish  communities  of  Greece,  Bul- 
garia, Serbia  and  Roumania  were  built  up,  their 
numerical  preponderance  causing  most  of  the  abo- 
riginal Jewish  settlers  of  those  -  countries  to  be- 
come rapidly  absorbed  among  them.  When  the 
power  of  the  Islam  began  to  wane  just  as  that 
of  Christendom  grew  in  the  ascendent,  and  it  be- 
came certain  that  in  the  no  distant  future  the 
cross  would  supersede  the  crescent,  the  Balkan 
Jews  beheld  the  impending  political  changes  with 
anxiety  and  trepidation.  Fifteen  hundred  years 
of  Christian  cruelty  and  inhumanity  had  left  an 
indelible  impress  upon  their  racial  consciousness. 
The  iron  of  Christian  hate  had  entered  their  Jew- 
ish souls,  and  they  could  not  but  regard  the  com- 
ing years  with  the  fear  with  which  the  long- 
hounded  animal  sees  the  approach  of  the  merci- 
less and  death-bringing  hunter.  That  their  fears 
were  not  unjustified  a  review  of  their  story  in  the 
last  one  hundred  years  will  show. 

Because  of  their  small  numbers  and  therefore 
scant  importance  in  the  modern  life  of  Israel,  the 
Jews  of  Greece,  Serbia  and  Bulgaria,  unlike  those 
of  Roumania,  have  claimed  but  little  attention  on 
the  part  of  Jewish  historians.  Thus  was 
Graeco-Jewish  history  allowed  to  rest  largely 
upon  the  laurels  achieved  by  the  ancient  Jewish 
communities  of  Alexandria  in  Egypt  when  it  was 


214  HISTORY   OF   THE    JEWS 

a  centre  of  Jewish  culture  at  the  opening  of  the 
Christian  era,  or  of  the  communities  of  Corfu, 
Constantinople,  Salonica  and  Adrianople.  Don 
Joseph  Nasi,  the  Duke  of  Naxos,  is  still  the  most 
prominent  historic  personality  in  the  Grecian  Jew- 
ish community  of  the  last  four  hundred  years, 
while  in  the  religious  life  of  modern  Jewry  Corfu, 
with  its  five  thousand  Jews,  is  of  interest  mainly 
for  its  extensive  citron  trade,  through  which  Jew- 
ish communities  are  supplied  with  the  etrog  for 
the  feast  of  Tabernacles.  Yet  these  little  Jewish 
communities  of  old  Greece  and  the  islands  be- 
longing to  it  have  played  a  highly  important  part 
in  Jewish  Histor.y.  They  have  kept  burning  the 
fire  of  Jewish  faith,  have  persistently  held  on  to 
their  traditions  in  the  midst  of  hateful  and  op- 
pressive environments,  have  served  as  places  of 
refuge  for  persecuted  co-religionists  from  other 
lands,  and  have  established  the  right  of  the  Jew 
to  call  Greece  his  country  in  common  with  the 
older  inhabitants.  Greek  Jews  have  furnished 
their  martyrs  during  the  revolt  against  Turkey  in 
1821,  many  of  them  perishing  at  the  hands  of  the 
revolutionists,  others  fleeing  for  their  lives  and 
seeking  refuge  in  cities  still  loyal  to  Turkey.  But 
few  were  the  Jews  remaining  in  the  ancient  Greek 
cities  after  the  establishment  of  Greek  independ- 
ence, Athens  itself  not  having  any  organized  com- 
munity whatever  until  some  fifty  years  ago.  Sa- 
lonica, though  still  remaining  under  Turkish 
dominion,  has  continued  to  exercise  a  consider- 
able moral  influence  upon  Greek  Jewry,  some  of 
the  rabbis  in  Corfu  and  other  centres  having 
come  from  there.  When,  at  the  end  of  the  Second 
Balkan  War,  Salonica  was  ceded  to  Greece,  its 
large  Jewish  community  of  nearly  100,000  souls, 
with  its  many  synagogues  and  educational  institu- 
tions, began  to  play  a  more  prominent  part  in  the 


THE  BALKAN  STATES  215 

life  of  the  whole  of  Greek  Jewry,  its  influence 
being  curtailed  only  through  the  ravages  of  the 
Great  War  and  the  military  occupation  of  the 
city  by  the  forces  of  the  Allied  nations. 

The  traditional  Greek  hatred  of  the  Jew  in 
ancient  Greece  has  survived  to  modern  times,  and 
the  German  Antisemitic  influence,  brought  into 
the  country  with  the  German  dynasty,  has  served 
to  aggravate  a  situation  which  might  have  be- 
come more  serious  had  the  number  of  Jews  in 
Greece  been  larger.  Constitutionally,  however, 
Jews  are  enjoying  full  rights  of  citizenship. 
Their  political  emancipation  in  Corfu  came  about 
largely  through  the  efforts  of  Adolphe  Cremieux, 
who,  in  1864,  interceded  for  them  with  the  Ionian 
Senate.  The  last  important  event  in  that  island 
was  the  blood-accusation  of  1891,  which  was  re- 
vived by  Antisemites  as  a  means  of  defeating 
Jewish  candidates  for  public  office.  A  Jewish 
girl  was  found  murdered  and  the  report  was  cir- 
culated that  the  Jews  had  slain  a  Christian  child 
for  ritualistic  ends.  To  escape  massacre,  many 
of  the  Jews  were  compelled  to  flee.  In  conse- 
quence of  this  uprising  a  movement  was  started 
among  the  Jews  of  Europe  to  boycott  the  etrog 
trade  of  Corfu,  which,  until  then,  had  been 
largely  in  the  hands  of  the  non-Jews. 

Bulgaria,  with  a  Jewish  colony  dating  back  to 
the  time  of  Emperor  Trajan,  has  her  own  chron- 
icles of  Jewish  martyrdom.  As  long  as  the  coun- 
try remained  in  bondage  to  Turkey,  the  Jews 
were  the  victims  alike  of  the  Turkish  hordes  and 
of  the  Greek  and  Bulgarian  inhabitants,  the  lat- 
ter wreaking  upon  the  helpless  people  the  ven- 
geance they  were  impotent  to  exact  from  their 
cruel  Mohammedan  oppressors.  The  political  un- 
rest of  the  country,  which  lasted  through  the 
greater  part  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  was 


2l6  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

only  aggravated  by  the  success  which  attended 
the  Greek  revolution,  placed  the  Jews  between  the 
hammer  and  the  anvil,  causing  them  immense  suf- 
fering at  the  hands  of  all  of  the  striving  factions. 
When  finally  Russia  went  to  war  with  Turkey 
(1877-1878)  for  the  liberation  of  Bulgaria,  the 
Jews  were  the  first  to  suffer  from  the  invading 
Russian  armies,  many  of  them  being  killed,  while 
thousands  were  expelled  from  the  cities  occupied 
by  the  Czar's  forces,  robbed  of  all  their  belong- 
ings and  made  to  seek  refuge  in  Constantinople 
and  other  Turkish  cities.  It  was  during  this  war, 
in  1877,  that  the  Jewish  men  and  women  of  Sofia 
saved  that  city  from  the  conflagration  started  by 
the  retreating  Turks.  They  returned  to  their 
plundered  homes  at  the  end  of  the  war  and  soon 
succeeded  in  rebuilding  their  ruined  fortunes. 
The  Treaty  of  Berlin  (1878)  gave  them  equal 
rights,  and  they  were  quick  to  avail  themselves  of 
the  new  conditions  for  the  improvement  of  their 
educational  and  economic  status.  The  Jewish 
settlements  of  Sofia,  Rustchuk,  Philipopolis,  Dub- 
nitza  and  other  places  began  to  grow  in  numbers 
and  in  wealth,  and  Bulgarian  Jewry  could  now 
look  confidently  to  a  happy  future.  Before  long, 
however,  they  were  again  to  feel  the  sting  of  op- 
pression. Open  to  the  influence  both  of  Russia, 
their  co-religionist  in  the  Greek  Catholic  Church, 
to  whom  they  were  grateful  for  their  liberation, 
and  of  Germany,  the  Bulgarians  took  a  page  out 
of  the  histories  of  both  these  countries  in  their 
attitude  toward  the  Jews.  The  reversal  of  the 
liberal  policy  of  Alexander  II  at  the  close  of  his 
reign,  and  the  rise  of  social  and  official  Antisemit- 
ism  in  Germany  were  thus  to  find  a  loud  echo  in 
Bulgaria.  Here,  too,  as  in  Germany,  the  Jews 
soon  found  the  guarantees  of  their  political  rights 
but  a  mere  scrap  of  paper.  Ritual-murder  charges 


THE    BALKAN    STATES  21  / 

were  made  against  them  successively  in  1884  and 
1885,  and  when  one  of  their  representative  men, 
M.  Gabbe,  was  in  1890  returned  to  the  Chamber 
of  Deputies,  an  attempt  was  made  to  invalidate 
his  election.  Following  the  example  of  Russia 
without  going  to  the  length  of  enacting  legal  re- 
strictions on  education,  the  elementary  and  high 
schools  were  made  hotbeds  of  religious  prejudice 
and  social  ostracism  against  the  Jewish  pupils, 
while  the  ritual-murder  charge  against  the  Jews 
of  Wratza  in  1891  was  but  a  fitting  complement 
to  the  picture  of  Jew-hatred  in  its  Bulgarian  set- 
ting, the  frame  work  of  which  was  furnished  by 
barbarous  Russia  to  the  north  and  so-called  en- 
lightened Prussia  to  the  west. 

Economically  poor,  and  helpless  in  the  face  of 
the    growing    tide    of    Antisemitism,    Bulgarian 
Jewry  would  have  found  itself  in  extreme  straits 
but  for  the  help  given  it  by  outside  Jewish  organ- 
izations, notably  the  Alliance  of  Paris  which  gave 
itself  to  the  task  of  establishing  schools  in  Bul- 
garia as  in  other  Balkan  States  and  in  the  Orient, 
no   less    than    fifteen    such    schools    having   been 
founded  by  the  end  of  the  century,  providing  in- 
struction for  nearly  4000  children.     Despite  these 
economic  and  political  hardships,  Bulgarian  Jewry 
has    produced   a   number   of    representative   men 
while  the  religious  interests  of  the  community  in 
the  last  generation  have  been  loyally  represented 
by  men  eminently  worthy  of  the  dignity  of  "Chief 
Rabbi"    of    the    land,    namely,    Drs.    Dankowitz, 
Gruenwald    and    Ehrenpreis,    the    latter    having, 
shortly  before  the  outbreak  of  the  Great  War, 
accepted  the  position  of  Chief  Rabbi  of  Sweden. 
The  history  of  the  Jews  of  Serbia  differs  from 
that  of  their  brethren  in  Greece  and  Bulgaria  in 
one  important  respect:    Serbia  was  the  first  of  all 
the  Balkan  States  to  grant  to  the  Jews  full  polit- 


2l8  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

ical  equality,  Prince  Milosch  Obrenovich  having 
made  a  proclamation  to  that  effect  as  early  as 
1817.  Serbia,  however,  was  then  still  in  vassal- 
age to  Turkey,  and  such  a  grant  of  equality  could 
not  be  safeguarded  by  any  guarantees  other  than 
the  personal  favor  of  a  prince,  himself  not  always 
free  in  the  execution  of  his  plans.  But  so  long  as 
Milosch  remained  in  power  he  kept  his  promise 
and  for  a  period  of  twenty-one  years  the  Jews  of 
his  land  enjoyed  a  large  measure  of  peace  and 
prosperity.  When  in  1842  Milosch  abdicated  in 
favor  of  Alexander  Kara-Georgevich,  a  period 
of  reaction  set  in.  Jews  were  limited  in  their  op- 
portunities for  trading  and  were  forbidden  to 
settle  in  the  interior  of  the  country.  Though,  as 
a  result  of  the  Treaty  of  Paris  at  the  end  of  the 
Crimean  War,  in  1856,  Jews  were  granted  free 
religious  and  civic  equality,  this  provision  was 
shortly  thereafter  nullified  by  a  new  law  promul- 
gated in  that  same  year,  restricting  them  in  their 
liberties.  Milosch  was  again  restored  to  power  in 
1858,  and  again  he  issued  a  decree  abrogating  all 
legal  restrictions  against  the  Jews.  But  his  death, 
which  occurred  soon  after,  again  changed  the  sit- 
uation, his  successor,  Prince  Michel,  renewing  all 
former  restrictions  and  ordering  the  expulsion  of 
the  Jews  living  in  interior  cities.  Such  expulsions 
took  place  in  1861,  '62,  '63  and  again  in  1864. 
The  majority  of  Serbian  Jews  had  been  concen- 
trated in  Belgrade,  two  thousand  of  them  being 
found  there  in  1862  at  the  time  of  the  Turkish 
bombardment  of  the  city.  In  consequence  of  the 
legal  and  commercial  restrictions  their  numbers 
in  a  few  years  dwindled  down  to  nearly  half, 
many  of  them  emigrating.  Here,  too,  the  Alli- 
ance came  to  their  assistance  by  interceding  with 
the  Serbian  government  in  their  behalf.  Since 
they  could  get  no  redress  in  their  own  country, 


THE    BALKAN    STATES  219 

the  Jews  of  Serbia  vainly  endeavored  to  place 
themselves  under  the  protection  of  England,  the 
House  of  Commons  having  been  duly  memorial- 
ized about  this,  in  1867,  by  Sir  Francis  Gold- 
smid.  All  the  pressure  which  was  brought  to 
bear  upon  Prince  Milan  by  men  like  Cremieux 
and  Montefiore  to  bring  about  a  change  in  the 
status  of  his  Jewish  subjects  was'  futile,  and  the 
constitution  which  was  proclaimed  in  1869  reaf- 
firmed the  old  restrictions,  adding  to  their  many 
hardships  the  one  of  compulsory  military  service. 

Expulsions  and  voluntary  emigration  of  the 
Jews  continued,  depleting  their  number  still  fur- 
ther. A  change  for  the  better  took  place  in  1873 
when  the  Jews  of  Belgrade  were  permitted  to 
elect  one  of  their  number  to  the  Skupshtina  (Par- 
liament). This  served  to  encourage  the  Jews  and 
to  bind  them  more  firmly  to  a  land  they  had 
hitherto  looked  upon  as  a  cruel  step-mother. 
When  the  last  revolt  against  Turkey  broke  out  in 
1876,  the  Jews  were  fired  with  patriotism  and 
many  of  them  gave  their  life  in  defense  of  Ser- 
bian independence.  Prince  Milan  himself  became 
convinced  of  the  utter  loyalty  of  the  Jews,  and  in 
1880  selected  six  of  them  to  serve  as  his  body- 
guard. The  constitution  of  1889  finally  abolished 
all  existing  restrictions  and  placed  the  Jews  upon 
a  footing  of  complete  equality  with  non-Jews. 

The  story  of  the  Jews  of  Moldavia  and  Wal- 
lachia,  known  as  Roumania,  is  as  unlike  that  of 
the  other  Balkan  states  as,  from  the  point  of  view 
of  numbers,  it  is  of  greater  importance  to  the 
general  history  of  the  Jews.  Where  the  combined 
Jewish  population  of  Greece,  Bulgaria  and  Serbia 
probably  does  not  to  this  day  exceed  fifty  thou- 
sand souls,  that  of  Roumania  alone  is  more  than 
four  times  that  number.  Again,  the  difference 
between  Roumania  and  the  other  Balkan  states 


22O  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

is  this,  that  while  in  each  of  the  other  states 
Jewish  emancipation  followed  in  the  wake  of 
general  progress,  and  public  opinion  in  the  civ- 
ilized communities  of  Europe  had  a  liberalizing 
effect  upon  the  attitude  of  the  state  toward  the 
Jews,  Roumania  alone  remained  immune  to  all 
the  finer  sensibilities  of  an  enlightened  age. 
Where  the  other  Balkan  states  turned  to  Western 
Europe  for  guidance  and  inspiration,  and  formed 
their  Jewish  policy  in  accordance  with  the  spirit 
and  example  of  the  West — even  their  inconsist- 
ency in  this  regard  being  largely  an  echo  of  the 
voice  of  Wrestern  Europe  on  the  Jewish  question, 
Roumania  had  her  eyes  always  turned  to  the  East, 
choosing  Russia  alone  as  her  mentor  and  guide. 
She,  accordingly,  became  in  all  matters  affecting 
the  Jews  but  a  duplicate  of  Russia  on  a  small 
scale.  She  copied  in  every  detail  the  duplicity  and 
hypocrisy  of  her  older  sister,  often  even  improv- 
ing upon  the  former's  barbarity  and  inhumanity. 
Russia  could  at  least  claim  the  credit  of  original- 
ity in  her  anti-Jewish  methods.  Roumania  re- 
mained as  mediocre  in  her  hatred  of  the  Jew  as 
she  was'  in  all  other  matters.  She  has  steadily 
proved  her  incapacity  for  learning  anything  new, 
and  where  in  Europe,  in  Germany,  France,  and 
Austria,  Antisemitism  at  least  sought  to  hide  its 
hideous  nakedness  under  the  fig-leaf  of  scientific 
calculation,  political  doctrine  and  economic  thesis, 
in  Roumania  hatred  for  the  Jew  has  remained 
the  elemental  and  static  hatred  of  the  unreasoning 
brute  for  one  not  of  its  kind.  If  in  the  rest  of 
Christendom — not  even  Russia  excluded — dislike 
for  the  Jew  may  be  regarded  as  an  error  of  judg- 
ment, or  as  an  heirloom  of  former  ages  based 
upon  an  ignoble  tradition,  the  hatred  of  the  Rou- 
manian for  the  Jew7  is  an  ineradicable  obsession, 
an  inseparable  part  of  the  psychology  of  the  na- 


THE    BALKAN    STATES  221 

tion.  And  because  of  this,  none  who  knows  the 
character  of  the  Roumanian  people  has  ever  in- 
dulged in  the  hope  that  the  Roumanians  would  at 
any  time  grant  real  freedom  and  equality  to  the 
Jews  unless  forcibly  made  to  do  so  by  the  rest  of 
the  world. 

It  should  not,  perhaps,  be  difficult  to  account 
for  this  bitter  feeling  against  the  Jews  if  one  re- 
members that  the  Roumanians  had  themselves 
been  a  much-wronged  and  long-suffering  people 
which  for  a  number  of  centuries  writhed  under 
the  heel  of  the  conquering  Turk,  and  that  because 
the  Jews  had  received  a  more  considerate  treat- 
ment from  their  Mohammedan  taskmasters  the 
Roumanians,  in  their  blind  frenzy,  identified  the 
Jews  with  the  Turks.  The  religious  difference, 
too,  was  no  small  factor,  while  the  century-old 
enmity  felt  for  the  Turk  by  Russia,  the  defender 
of  the  Greek  Catholic  faith  and  self-assumed  pro- 
tector of  the  small  Slavic  nationalities,  with  her 
undying  ambition  to  wrest  Constantinople  from 
the  hands  of  her  traditional  foe  and  make  it  once 
again  the  seat  of  a  revived  Byzantine  Empire— 
these  considerations,  added  to  the  historic  feud 
between  Judaism  and  Christianity,  made  for  a 
deep-seated  aversion  for  the  Jew,  become  all  the 
more  aggravated  in  view  of  the  large  number  of 
Jews  always  present  in  the  country.  In  a  large 
measure  Roumanian  Jewry  formed  a  counterpart 
to  that  of  many  another  land,  and  its  misfortunes 
are  traceable  to  like  causes. 

The  natural  perspicacity  and  alertness  of  the 
Jew  brought  about  by  many  well-known  historic 
causes,  has  always  set  him  off  as  a  being  greatly 
superior  to  the  simple  Roumanian  peasant,  while 
his  cleaner  ways  of  living  due  to  the  ritualistic 
and  dietary  requirements  of  his  religion,  coupled 
with  the  education  which  every  Jew  receives  in 


222  HISTORY   OF    THE    JEWS 

his  childhood,  have  lent  him  an  aristocratic  bear- 
ing which  even  the  coarse  and  illiterate  Rouman- 
ian could  not  pass  by  without  envy.  Here,  too,  as 
in  Russia,  the  cry  of  exploitation  was  sooner  or 
later  to  be  raised,  and  the  Jew  was  to  be  made  a 
scapegoat  for  sins  he  was  not  guilty  of,  and  for 
historic  circumstances  not  of  his  making.  No 
sooner  did  the  Roumanians  acquire  a  modicum  of 
freedom  than  this  anti-Jewish  feeling  was  to  crys- 
tallize into  a  policy  of  persecution  the  like  of 
which  has  hardly  been  equalled  even  in  a  history 
so  rich  in  adversity  as  that  of  the  Jews. 

The  nineteenth  century  opens  quite  prophetical- 
ly in  Roumania  amidst  a  number  of  harrowing 
incidents  in  which  the  Jew  is  made  to  pay  the 
penalty  of  his  birth.  With  the  accession  in  1799 
of  Alexander  Moruzi  to  the  throne  of  Wallachia 
the  people  saw  another  opportunity  for  a  hostile 
outbreak  against  the  Jews.  A  charge  of  ritual- 
murder  was  trumped  up  in  Bucharest,  riots  were 
started  in  April,  1801,  in  the  name  of  the  prince, 
the  Jewish  quarter  of  the  city  was  laid  waste  and 
twenty-eight  persons  lost  their  lives.  A  similar 
ritual-murder  charge  was  also  made  in  1803  in 
Jassy,  the  capital  of  Moldavia,  where  the  same 
Alexander  Moruzi  had  become  ruler  shortly  be- 
fore, and  four  Jews  of  the  city  were  imprisoned 
and  tortured.  A  press  campaign  was  begun  with 
the  publication  of  a  pamphlet,  "The  Insolence  of 
the  Jews,"  and  both  the  Church  and  the  nobility, 
aided  and  abetted  by  the  government,  conspired 
to  ruin  the  Jews  by  circulating  slanderous  reports 
in  justification  of  the  imposition  of  higher  taxes 
upon  them  and  the  further  curtailment  of  their 
rights.  War  again  broke  out  between  Russia  and 
Turkey,  making  Roumania  the  scene  of  the  fight- 
ing, and  the  Jews,  as  in  all  former  wars  between 
those  two  powers,  were  again  the  principal  suf- 


THE    BALKAN    STATES  223 

ferers.  Ypsilanti,  ruler  of  Wallachia,  left  Bu- 
charest upon  the  approach  of  the  Russians,  and 
his  going  was  a  signal  for  the  people  to  fall  upon 
the  Jews.  Given  the  choice  between  baptism  and 
death,  these  unfortunates  were  saved  only  upon 
the  arrival  of  the  Russians.  The  tale  of  agony 
was,  however,  to  continue  all  through  the  Rus- 
sian occupation  which  lasted  until  the  conclusion 
of  peace  in  1812.  There  is  a  continuation  of  ex- 
tortions, imprisonment  and  torture,  and  again  the 
dreadful  ritual-murder  accusations  with  their  con- 
sequent riots  and  attacks.  Probably  the  most  hor- 
rifying incident  of  this  war  was  in  connection 
with  the  invasion  of  Bucharest  by  the  man-eating 
Kalmuks,  a  part  of  the  Turkish  army,  who  broke 
into  the  Jewish  homes,  spitted  the  little  children 
on  their  lances,  and  roasted  them  alive,  consum- 
ing them  before  the  eyes  of  their  parents.  Only 
a  large  monetary  offer  by  the  Jews  induced  the 
savages  to  withdraw  from  the  city.  When  Rou- 
mania  was  finally  left  at  peace  by  both  Russia 
and  Turkey,  the  lot  of  the  Jews  was  scarcely  im- 
proved. The  rulers  of  both  principalities,  Carad- 
ja  in  Wallachia  and  Kallimochos  in  Moldavia, 
vied  with  each  other  in  making  the  burden  of  the 
Jew  heavy.  A  plague  broke  out  all  over  the  coun- 
try, and  the  Jew  was  blamed  for  its  ravages  by 
both  authorities  and  people.  They  were  charged 
with  being  filthy  in  body  and  in  their  homes,  and 
the  officials  used  this  charge  as  a  source  of  extor- 
tion. In  the  laws  framed  by  these  two  rulers 
Jews  are  not  allowed  to  act  as  witnesses  against 
Christians,  and  may  not  own  estates  or  vine- 
yards. 

There  now  begins  one  long  and  endless  series 
of  persecutions  and  outrages  against  the  Jews, 
the  government  framing  oppressive  laws,  while 
the  populace  takes  the  law  into  its  own  hands. 


224  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

The  Greek  revolution  of  1821  caused  much  un- 
rest in  Roumania,  where  the  lawless  elements 
banded  together  and,  under  the  guise  of  a  revolu- 
tionary army,  marched  through  the  cities  of  Pi- 
atra,  Neamtz,  Folticheni,  Hertza  and  Fokshani, 
in  each  of  which  they  killed  Jews  and  laid  waste 
their  homes.  The  entrance  of  the  Turkish  forces 
into  Moldavia  only  meant  a  repetition  of  these 
horrors,  one  result  being  the  destruction  by  fire 
of  the  City  of  Jassy  and  its  large  Jewish  quarter 
(August,  1822).  Again  war  breaks  out  between 
Russia  and  Turkey  (1826-1834),  the  land  is  laid 
low  by  a  plague,  and  the  Jews  are  the  chief  suf- 
ferers. The  fate  of  the  Jews  is  dependent  upon 
the  passing  mood  of  the  reigning  prince,  and  this 
mood  is  but  seldom  friendly.  Special  imposts  are 
constantly  levied  on  the  hapless  race  to  fill  the 
coffers  of  the  prince,  •  while  the  attitude  of  Russia 
toward  her  own  Jews  is  regarded  as  a  worthy 
exemplar  for  Roumanian  conduct.  In  Wallachia 
their  situation  improves  somewhat  under  the  in- 
different rule  of  Alexander  Ghika  (1834-1842) 
and  George  Bibescu  (1842-1848),  but  in  Molda- 
via, where  Michael  Sturdza  (1834-1848)  reigns, 
their  lot  continues  from  bad  to  worse.  His  "Or- 
ganic Law,"  a  charter  the  provisions  of  which 
were  inspired  by  Russia,  with  its  clause  on  va- 
grancy, was  used  with  doleful  effect  for  the  un- 
doing of  the  Jew.  Jewish  innkeepers  are  driven 
from  the  villages  and  they  are  not  permitted  to 
inhabit  certain  streets  and  localities  in  the  cities. 
They  are  restricted  in  their  commerce,  are  for- 
bidden to  build  their  synagogues  in  certain  places, 
while  ritual-murder  charges  are  repeatedly  hurled 
at  them  and  they  are  the  victims  of  rioting,  mur- 
der and  abduction  with  no  chance  of  redress  at 
the  hands  of  the  government.  Still,  as  one  of 
their  historians,  Dr.  E.  Schwartzfeld  observes, 


THE    BALKAN    STATES  225 

"there  was  need  of  the  Jews"  even  in  Roumania. 
They  are  summoned  by  the  boyars  (nobles)  to 
found  and  people  market-towns,  and  some  of  the 
small  towns  established  by  them  in  Moldavia  ex- 
ist and  flourish  to  this  day. 

There  was  apparently  still  greater  need  of  the 
Jew   for   the   establishment   of   Roumanian   inde- 
pendence and  her  unification  as  a  kingdom.    Jews 
took   a   leading  part   in   the   revolution   of    1848 
which  reached  even  Wallachia,  and  one  of  their 
number,  Daniel  Rosenthal,  a  noted  painter,  paid 
for  his  revolutionary  activity  with  his  life.     Be- 
cause of  this  activity  a  tremendous  toll  of  blood 
and    treasure    was    exacted    from    them    by    the 
avenging    Turks,    when    the    latter    entered    Bu- 
charest.    Their  importance  in  the  work  of  stab- 
ilizing the  political  situation  of  the  land  became 
even  more  apparent  at  the  close  of  the  Crimean 
War  when   the   struggle   for  the  union  of  Mol- 
davia and  Wallachia  under  one  government  was 
ushered  in.     Each  of  the  factions  in  the  struggle 
pulled  the  Jews  in  its  own  direction,   promising 
them  full  equality.     The  majority  of  them  ranged 
themselves  on  the  side  of  union  which  soon  be- 
came a  fact  under  John  Alexander  Cuza  (1859- 
1866),    the    first   ruler   of   the   united   provinces. 
However,    Der    Mohr    hat    seine    Schuldgigkeit 
gethan,    der   Mohr   kann   gehen.      The    promises 
held  out  to  them  of  political  equality  were  not 
kept  and  Cuza,  the  very  prince  in  whom  so  many 
hopes  had  been  centred,  even  went  to  the  length 
of  inserting  in  the  constitution  he  was   framing 
for  the  country  the  clause  barring  all  non-Chris- 
tians from  the  franchise.     The  restrictions  piled 
upon  Roumanian  Jewry  since  that  time  had  their 
real  origin  in  the  legislative  work  of  Cuza.     His 
successor,  Charles  von  Hohenzollern,  who  ascend- 
ed the  throne  in  1866,  had  no  desire  and  no  ambi- 


226  HISTORY   OF   THE   JEWS 

tion  to  ameliorate  the  condition  of  the  Jews.  His 
rule  was  inaugurated  amidst  serious  rioting 
against  the  Jews  of  Bucharest,  culminating 
in  the  desecration  and  demolition  of  the  great 
synagogue.  In  the  constitution  then  in  the  proc- 
ess of  formation  was  inserted  Article  7  distinctly 
barring  Jews  from  citizenship,  while  the  succes- 
sion to  power  of  Bratianu,  called  by  Charles  to 
the  premiership,  meant  the  inauguration  of  a  pol- 
icy of  terror  unknown  even  to  Roumania.  He 
ransacked  the  archives  of  Moldavia  and  Wal- 
lachia,  unearthed  all  the  old  and  obsolete  laws 
against  the  Jews  and  endeavored  to  put  them  in 
force  again.  They  were  again  expelled  from  the 
villages;  their  inns  were  closed  and  their  mer- 
chandise plundered.  A  general  hunt  began  for 
the  Jews  throughout  the  country,  the  law  of  va- 
grancy was  invoked,  and  summary  punishment 
dealt  out.  In  one  instance  a  number  of  Jews, 
Roumanian  by  birth,  were  seized  and  taken  across 
the  Danube  to  Turkey.  When  the  Turks  refused 
to  receive  them  they  were  thrown  into  the  river 
and  drowned. 

Meanwhile  enlightened  public  opinion  in  Eu- 
rope and  America  was  revolting  against  these 
continued  barbarities,  openly  flaunted  by  a  people 
itself  but  semi-free  and  of  a  low  national  culture. 
Both  the  English  and  French  governments  were 
induced  by  their  leading  Jewish  subjects  to  take 
up  the  Jewish  problem  of  Roumania  direct  with 
the  Bucharest  government,  while  the  Alliance  of 
Paris  exerted  all  her  powerful  efforts  to  secure 
justice  for  a  quarter  of  a  million  of  outlawed  and 
outraged  Jews.  Adolphe  Cremieux  visited  Rou- 
'mania  in  1866  to  take  up  the  matter  with  Prince 
Charles,  and  was  followed  the  next  year  by  Sir 
Moses  Montefiore  who  went  there  despite  his  ad- 
vancing age  and  the  threat  of  personal  violence  at 


THE    BALKAN    STATES 

the  hands  of  the  mob.  Likewise  the  Emperor 
Napoleon  III,  in  1867,  at  the  instance  of  Cre- 
mieux,  telegraphed  to  Prince  Charles  a  message 
of  remonstrance.  "I  cannot  believe,"  the  imperial 
message  read,  "that  the  enlightened  government 
of  your  Highness  authorizes  measures  so  opposed 
to  humanity  and  civilization."  The  government 
of  the  United  States  was  also  willing  to  use  her 
good  offices  in  behalf  of  -the  persecuted  people, 
and  the  American  Minister  at  Constantinople,  Mr. 
Morris,  was  directed  by  Secretary  of  State  Sew- 
ard  to  make  representation  on  the  Jewish  perse- 
cutions in  Serbia  and  Roumania.  American  Jew- 
ry, then  still  a  numerically  small  body,  was  al- 
ready becoming  awake  to  its  importance  in  the 
international  affairs  of  the  Jews,  owing  to  its 
growing  prosperity  and  the  liberties  it  was  en- 
joying, and  its  leading  organizations  of  those 
days,  the  Independent  Order  B'nai  B'rith  and  the 
Board  of  Delegates  of  American  Israelites,  were 
keenly  alive  to  the  plight  of  the  Roumanian 
Jews.  It  was  for  the  purpose  of  helping  those 
people  to  attain  the  full  status  of  citizenship  that 
Jesse  Seligman  and  other  leading  American  Jews 
urged  upon  the  national  administration  the  ap- 
pointment of  Mr.  Benjamin  F.  Peixotto,  of  San 
Francisco,  as  United  States  Consul  to  Roumania. 
It  was  the  first  direct  step  taken  by  a  great  gov- 
ernment, solely  on  humanitarian  grounds,  to  bring 
to  an  end  the  shameful  drama  enacted  in  the  petty 
Balkan  States.  Before  leaving  on  his  important 
mission  Peixotte  called  at  the  White  House  to 
pay  his  respects  to  President  Grant,  and  the  in- 
terview between  the  two,  in  its  bearing  upon  the 
Roumanian  Jewish  situation,  will  remain  historic. 
The  President  said  to  him :  * 


*  Quoted  by  Peixotto  in  his  articles  on  "The  Story  of  the  Rou- 
manian Mission"  in  the  "Menorah."  Vol.  I,  pp.  22  et  seq. 


228  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

"Respect  for  human  rights  is  the  first  duty  of 
those  set  as  rulers  over  nations,  and  the  humbler, 
poorer,  more  abject  and  more  miserable  a  people 
be,  be  they  black  or  white,  Jew  or  Christian,  the 
greater  should  be  the  concern  of  those  in  author- 
ity, to  extend  protection,  to  rescue  and  redeem 
them  and  raise  them  up  to  equality  with  the  most 
enlightened.  The  story  of  the  sufferings  of  the 
Hebrews  of  Roumania  profoundly  touches  every 
sensibility  of  our  nature.  It  is  one  long  series  of 
outrage  and  wrong;  and  even  if  there  be  exag- 
geration in  the  accounts  which  have  reached  us, 
enough  is  evident  to  prove  the  imperative  duty  of 
all  civilized  nations  in  extending  their  moral  aid 
in  behalf  of  a  people  so  unhappy.  I  trust  Prince 
Charles  and  his  Ministers  and  the  public  men  of 
that  country,  may  be  brought  to  see  that  the  fu- 
ture of  their  nation  lies  in  a  direction  totally  op- 
posite to  those  Draconic  laws  and  persecutions, 
whether  great  or  petty,  which  have  hitherto  so 
invidiously  marked  its  character.  It  is  not  by 
Chinese  walls  or  Spanish  expatriations  that  na- 
tions, great  or  small,  can  hope  to  make  progress 
in  our  day.  I  have  no  doubt  your  presence  and 
influence,  together  with  the  efforts  of  your  col- 
leagues of  the  Guaranteeing  Powers,  with  whom 
in  this  matter  you  will  always  be  prompt  to  act, 
will  result  in  mitigating  the  evils  complained  of, 
and  end  in  terminating  them.  The  United  States, 
knowing  no  distinction  between  her  own  citizens 
on  account  of  religion  or  nationality,  naturally 
believes  in  a  civilization  the  world  over,  which 
will  secure  the  same  universal  views." 

A  vain  hope  this  on  the  part  of  America's  Chief 
Executive.  The  President  had  overlooked  one 
most  important  item  in  his  estimate  of  the  Rou- 
manian situation,  namely,  that  Roumania's  na- 
tional psychology  was  wholly  different  from  that 


THE    BALKAN    STATES  22Q 

of  other  peoples  and  that  she  could  not  therefore 
be  judged  by  the  same  standards  as  other  nations 
are  judged.     Howsoever  faithful  and  meritorious 
the  services  performed  by  Peixotte,  even  he,  with 
the  great  influence  of  America  behind  him,  could 
not  break  through  the  stone  wall  of  age-long  in- 
tolerance for  the  Jew  in  that  benighted  country. 
There  now  ensued  years  of  activity  on  the  part 
of    Peixotto    who,    as   the   spokesman   and   diplo- 
matic  representative  of  the  great  American  Re- 
public, was  able  to  influence  his  "colleagues  in  the 
Diplomatic   Corps   at   Bucharest   to   take   similar 
action  on  behalf  of  their  own  governments.    As  a 
result  of  the  renewed  anti-Jewish  rioting  of  1872 
the  powers  of  Western  Europe  as  well  as  Amer- 
ica were  roused  to  vigorous  action.     In  the  Ger- 
man Reichstag  the  two  Jewish  deputies,  Ludwig 
Bamberger  and  Eduard  Lasker,  succeeded  in  hav- 
ing a  resolution  of  protest  passed,  while  both  in 
the  House  of  -Commons  and  the  Mansion  House 
in  London  there  were  stirring  speeches  by  some 
of   the   best   known   men   of   the   English   nation 
against  Roumanian  perfidy  and  barbarity.     Eng- 
land,  France  and  Italy  were  ready  to  co-operate 
in  the  holding  of  a  conference  of  all  the  Great 
Powers    under    whose    protection    Roumania    had 
been  placed,  for  the  purpose  of  solving  the  Jew- 
ish   problem,    Russia    alone    opposing    the    plan, 
while  in  the  American  Congress,  in  addition  to  a 
resolution  of  protest,  both  houses  adopted  reso- 
lutions requesting  all  information  on  the  Jewish 
situation    in    the    Balkans.      Secretary    of    State 
Hamilton    Fish's   answer   was   to   the   effect   that 
Consul    Peixotto   had   already    "in   common   with 
the  representatives  of  the  other  powers  addressed 
a  note  of  remonstrance  to  the  [Roumanian]  Min- 
ister and  more  recently  united  with  the  represen- 
tatives of  those  powers  (Italy  being  included),  in 


230  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

a  collective  note  to  the  Roumanian  government, 
bearing  date  of  April  18,  1872,  on  the  subject  of 
those  recent  occurrences,  and  pointing  out,  with 
marked    but    just    severity,    the    impunity    which 
had  been  enjoyed  by  the  perpetrators  of  the  vio- 
lence, which  it  characterized  appropriately  as  un- 
worthy of  a  civilized  country."    The  extent  of  the 
interest  shown  by  the  United  States  government 
in  this  matter  was  demonstrated  in  the  many  let- 
ters addressed  to  Peixotto  by  Secretary  Fish,  and 
by  the   instructions   issued  by  him,   on  July  22, 
1872,  to  the  United  States  Ministers  at  Vienna, 
London,  Paris,  Berlin,  Rome,  St.  Petersburg  and 
Constantinople    to    communicate    to    the    govern- 
ments to  which  each  of  them  was  accredited  the 
sympathy  felt  in  the  United  States  for  the  Jewish 
victims  of  Roumania,   so  that  "it  might  quicken 
and  encourage  the  efforts  of  that  government  to 
discharge  its  duty  as  a  protecting  power,  pursu- 
ant to  the  obligations  of  the  treaty  between  cer- 
tain European  states,"  in  view  of  the  fact  that 
"the  grievance  adverted  to  is  so  enormous  as  to 
impart  to  it,  as  it  were,  a  cosmopolitan  character, 
in   the    redress   of   which   all   countries,    govern- 
ments, and  creeds  are  alike  interested."     Ameri- 
ca's sympathy  did  indeed  stir  Europe  to   action 
while  Peixotto's  unceasing  propaganda  in  behalf 
of  his  co-religionists  emboldened  the  well-known 
Jewish  leaders  of  England,  France,  Germany  and 
Austria-Hungary  to  continue  their  own  share  of 
"the  agitation.     "I  have   set  all   Europe   ablaze," 
writes   Peixotto  to  Mr.   Simon  Wolf,   "with  the 
cause  of  our  Roumanian  brethren.     All  the  great 
journals  of  England,   Germany,  Austria,   France 
and  Italy  teem  with  articles  on  the  persecutions 
and  oppression  of  our  people,  and  not  only  have 
parliaments  been  moved,  but  cabinets,  and,   if  I 
mistake  not,  some  great  results  must  follow." 


THE    BALKAN    STATES  23! 

Peixotto's  work  did  not  immediately  lead  to  the 
desired  results,  but  it  doubtless  prepared  the  way 
for  the  action  taken  at  the  Berlin  Congress  of 
1878  as  was  testified  to  by  Lord  Beaconsfield, 
aside  from  the  fact  that  his  propaganda,  if  it  did 
not  improve  the  situation  of  the  Jews,  at  least 
had  the  benevolent  effect  of  keeping  it  from  be- 
coming worse.  Indeed,  Peixotto's  real  position 
was  more  that  of  an  emissary  to  and  for  the 
Jews  than  of  a  diplomatic  agent  for  a  great  trans- 
atlantic power,  though  his  strength  and  influence 
emanated  from  the  latter  circumstance.  It  was 
also  largely  due  to  his  initiative  that  the  Anglo- 
Jewish  Association  and  the  Alliance  Israelite  en- 
tered upon  the  educational  work  which  did  so 
much  to  raise  the  intellectual  status  of  Rou- 
manian Jewry.  He  travelled  extensively  through 
both  Moldavia  and  Wallachia,  helped  the  unfor- 
tunate Jews  with  both  counsel  and  deed,  and  took 
a  leading  part  in  the  organization  of  their  benev- 
olent work  through  the  founding  of  the  Zion 
Order,  which  affiliated  with  the  B'nai  B'rith. 

The  question  of  the  Jewish  disabilities  in  Rou- 
mania  now  became  of  international  moment,  rec- 
ognized as  such  not  merely  by  the  great  powers 
but  by  the  Jews  themselves  who,  as  a  rule,  were 
slow  in  realizing  their  mutual  interests  and  the 
wisdom  of  their  standing  together.     The  need  of 
greater   solidarity  between  Jews   of  the   various 
countries  now  became  apparent,  and  led  to  the 
holding    of    three    international    conferences,    in 
Brussels  in  1872  and  in  Paris  in  1876  and  1878, 
the  last  of  these  conferences  taking  place  after 
the   Russo-Turkish  War.     At  these  conferences, 
first  of  their  kind  in  the  history  of  the  Jewish 
dispersion,    came    together    the    most    prominent 
Jews  of  the  time,  among  them  Cremieux,   Chief 
Rabbi  Isidor,  M.  Leven,  Joseph  Derenbourg  and 


232  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

Arthur  Levy  of  France,  Chief  Rabbi  Astruc  of 
Brussels,  Baron  Henry  de  Worms  and  Sir  Fran- 
cis Goldsmid  of  England,  Moritz  Lazarus  and 
Julius  Bleichroeder  of  Germany,  Dr.  Leopold 
Kompert  of  Austria,  and  Mr.  Peixotto,  Myer 
Stern  and  Isaac  and  William  Seligman  of  Amer- 
ica. They  led  to  an  international  organization  of 
the  Jews  for  the  solution  of  the  Roumanian  prob- 
lem with  headquarters  in  Vienna,  and  steps  were 
taken  for  the  carrying  out  of  a  number  of  pro- 
posed educational  and  moral  reforms  among  the 
Roumanian  Jews.  At  the  instance  of  this  organ- 
ization a  memorial  was  framed  for  submission  by 
the  Jews  of  Roumania  to  the  Roumanian  Cham- 
ber of  Deputies  stating  their  grievances  and  ask- 
ing for  complete  civil  and  political  rights  (1872). 
For  various  reasons,  chiefly  those  of  the  objec- 
tion of  the  Roumanian  premier  and  the  timidity 
of  the  Roumanian  Jews  themselves,  the  petition 
was  not  presented.  The  first  Paris  Conference 
(1876)  resulted  in  the  drafting  of  a  petition  to 
the  Conference  of  the  Powers,  then  about  to  meet 
in  Constantinople  for  deliberation  on  the  Eastern 
European  question,  asking  for  the  emancipation 
of  the  Jews  in  the  Balkan  provinces,  the  project 
having  received  the  support  of  the  American  and 
English  governments,  and  the  encouragement  of 
the  emissaries  of  Italy,  France,  Germany  and 
even  Russia.  Nothing  came  of  this  and  the  situ- 
ation of  the  Roumanian  Jews  was  still  further 
aggravated  by  the  outbreak  soon  after  of  the 
Russo-Turkish  War,  causing  much  suffering 
among  them  so  that  financial  aid  from  America 
and  other  countries  had  to  be  secured.  The 
turning  point  of  that  intolerable  situation  was, 
however,  near  at  hand  with  the  adoption  of  the 
Treaty  of  Berlin  in  1878,  by  which  Roumania 
was  given  her  full  independence  of  Turkey  on 


THE    BALKAN    STATES  233 

the  condition,  among  others,  of  the  complete  en- 
franchisement of  her  Jews,  a  condition  which,  as 
it  is  now  known,  Roumania  never  kept  even  as 
she  never  had  the  intention  of  keeping. 

The  time  for  'such  a  demand  had  long  been 
ripe,  and  the  opportunity  now  presented  itself, 
one  perhaps  never  to  come  again,  of  making  the 
Jewish  emancipation  in  Roumania  an  ironclad 
provision,  fenced  around  and  sustained  by  all  the 
majesty  and  strength  which  an  international 
treaty  was  supposed  to  possess  before  the  "scrap 
of  paper"  era  was  to  set  in  in  our  own  time. 
Considering  the  great  interest  aroused  in  Europe 
and  America  in  the  Roumanian  Jewish  problem, 
one  could  almost  believe  that  the  notable  Berlin 
Congress  had  been  called  primarily  to  solve  that 
problem,  and  that  other  and,  from  the  interna- 
tional view-point,  more  important  matters  were 
in  reality  but  side-issues.  America  was  keenly 
alive  to  the  question  of  justice  to  the  Jew  and 
instructed  its  representatves  at  the  European  cap- 
itals to  be  on  the  alert  for  the  developments  of 
the  Congress.  Even  before  the  convening  of  that 
historic  gathering,  the  United  States  Minister  at 
Vienna,  Mr.  John  A.  Kasson,  in  a  despatch  dated 
June  5,  suggested  that  the  United  States  indicate 
its  sympathy  with  the  movement  to  have  the  Con- 
gress of  Berlin  decree  equal  rights  for  the  Jews 
of  Roumania,  while  Bayard  Taylor,  who  was  then 
American  Minister  in  Berlin,  actually  interceded 
for  this  purpose  with  several  members  of  that 
Congress,  and  he  describes  the  proposed  treaty 
with  its  provisions  for  religious  liberty  as  "per- 
haps the  most  important  historical  act  since  that 
of  Vienna  in  1815."  Prince  Bismarck,  who  pre- 
sided at  the  Congress,  declared  to  Jewish  repre- 
sentatives that  "he  did  not  consider  any  settle- 
ment of  the  Eastern  question  satisfactory  which 


234  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

did  not  place  the  Jews  of  Roumania  upon  a  foot- 
ing of  perfect  equality  with  their  fellow  citizens," 
while  Lord  Beaconsfield  whose  attendance  at  the 
Congress,  though  a  British  Prime  Minister,  was 
regarded  as  an  unusual  procedure,  had  been 
known  as  a  most  enthusiastic  champion  of  the 
rights  of  the  Jews — his  own  brethren.  The  tim- 
idity shown  by  some  Jewish  organizations  out  of 
fear  of  prejudicing  rather  than  influencing  the 
Congress,  was  discarded  by  the  French  Alliance 
which  appointed  a  delegation  consisting  of  MM. 
Netter,  Kann  and  Veneziani  to  go-  to  Berlin  and 
intercede  with  individual  members  of  the  Con- 
gress. Co-operating  with  them  was  Baron  Ger- 
son  von  Bleichroeder  who,  as  a  personal  friend  of 
Bismarck,  made  use  of  his  influence  over  the  Iron 
Chancellor  and  other  members  of  the  Congress  in 
favor  of  the  Balkan  Jews. 

The  Congress  opened  on  June  13,  after  the 
stage  had  been  set  for  one  of  the  greatest  of  all 
international  dramas.  There  were  now  brought 
into  play  intrigues  and  counter-intrigues,  lobby- 
ing and  wire  pulling,  with  diplomats  of  great  and 
powerful  governments  acting  like  school  boys, 
each  of  them  seeking  to  foil  the  designs  of  the 
others  and  to  enrich  himself,  or  rather  the  coun- 
try he  represented,  by  a  slice  of  territory  or  a 
province.  Between  victorious  Russia  and  van- 
quished Turkey,  it  was  easy  to  see  on  whose  side 
the  advantage  lay.  But  England  and  Austria,  for 
selfish  reasons  of  their  own  were  determined  to 
rob  Russia  of  the  fruits  of  her  victory  and  to 
save  the  "Sick  Man  of  Europe,"  come  what  may, 
and  they  won  the  day  against  whatever  designs 
there  may  have  been  harbored  by  the  other  pow- 
ers. It  was  clear  to  all,  however,  that  though 
Turkey  may  be  saved  from  further  dismember- 
ment, the  Balkan  States  would  now  become  per- 


THE    BALKAN    STATES  235 

manently  severed  from  her,  it  merely  remaining  a 
question  as  to  the  size  these  states  shall  be  per- 
mitted to  retain  and  the  conditions  upon  which 
their  independence  shall  be  granted  to  them.  It 
was  here  where  the  political  intriguing  was  at  its 
highest.  Bulgaria,  Serbia  and  Roumania  all 
wanted  freedom  and  regarded  each  other  as  ri- 
vals, each  of  them  seeking  its  own  profit  at  the 
expense  of  its  neighbor.  The  seeds  of  future 
hatred  were  sown  when  Bulgaria  was  to  b.e  shorn 
of  part  of  her  territory  while  Serbia  was  to  be 
enlarged  in  size  at  -the  same  time  that  Roumania 
was  to  lose  to  Russia  the  fertile  province  of  Bes- 
sarabia. The  future  position  of  the  Jews  of  these 
provinces  could  be  foreseen  by  the  attitude  of  the 
representatives  of  the  Balkan  States,  who  were 
approached  by  the  members  of  the  Alliance.  Ris- 
titch,  the  Serbian,  was  not  unfavorable  to  the 
proposition  of  full  rights  for  the  Jews,  while  Co- 
galniceanu  and  Bratianu,  the  Roumanians,  were 
ill  at  ease  about  the  prospect,  Bratianu  not  hesi- 
tating to  express  the  hope  of  the  Jews  re-estab- 
lishing their  kingdom  in  Palestine  so  as  to  rid 
Roumania  of  them.  The  question  of  freedom  and 
equality  in  Bulgaria  for  all  creeds  and  nationali- 
ties introduced  by  Wm.  Henry  Waddington,  the 
French  Plenipotentiary,  precipitated  a  discussion 
in  the  course  of  which  Count  Gortschakoff,  the 
Russian  emissary,  delivered  himself  of  abusive 
statements  about  the  Jews  of  Serbia,  Roumania 
and  his  own  country,  who,  he  declared,  had  to  be 
treated  by  exceptional  laws  to  safeguard  the  in- 
terests of  the  population.  He  distinguished  be- 
tween Jews  and  Israelites.  "The  former  were  a 
plague;  the  latter  might  be  excellent  people,  as 
could  be  seen  in  Berlin  and  London."  His  words, 
however,  fell  wide  of  the  mark,  his  own  fellow- 
delegate,  Count  Shouvaloff,  voting  with  the  pleni- 


2^  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

potentiaries  of  Germany,*  Italy,  Austria  and  Tur- 
key in  favor  of  the  principle  of  religious  liberty. 

When  the  question  of  Roumanian  independence 
came  up  (July  i),  the  Congress  could  now  act 
upon  the  precedent  established  for  Serbia  and 
Bulgaria.  The  principle  held  out  for  the  last 
named  provinces  was  essential  also  as  a  condition 
for  the  independence  of  the  former.  Bratianu 
and  Cogalniceanu  appeared  in  behalf  of  their 
country's  freedom  but  had  not  a  word  to  say 
about  the  Jewish  problem.  Again  the  representa- 
tive of  France,  M.  Waddington,  demanded  of  the 
Congress  not  to  swerve  from  the  grand  rule  of 
"equality  of  rights  and  liberty  of  worship,"  and 
he  was  seconded  in  his  statements  by  the  other 
plenipotentiaries.  Lord  Beaconsfield  declared  that 
"he  could  not  suppose,  for  a  moment,  that  the 
Congress  could  recognize  the  independence  of 
Roumania  apart  from  this  condition,"  while  Prince 
Gortschakoff,  nursing  the  rebuff  his  words  on  the 
Serbian  Jewish  question  had  called  forth,  now 
sought  to  remove  a  bad  impression  by  falling  in 
with  his  French  colleague's  proposition  "which 
gave  the  greatest  latitude  to  religious  liberty." 
The  final  text  of  the  treaty,  as  given  in  the  Brit- 
ish Blue-Book,  contained  the  following  provision 
bearing  upon  Roumania  and  known  as  Article  44: 

"In  Roumania,  •  difference  in  religious  beliefs 
and  confessions  shall  not  be  brought  against  any 
one  as  a  ground  for  exclusion  or  unfitness  as  re- 
gards the  enjoyment  of  civil  and  political  rights, 
admission  to  public  offices,  functions,  and  honors, 
or  the  exercise  of  various  professions  and  indus- 
tries in  any  place  whatever.  Freedom  in  outward 
observance  of  all  creeds  will  be  assured  to  all 
subjects  of  the  Roumanian  state,  as  \vell  as  to 
strangers,  and  no  obstacle  will  be  raised  either  to 


THE    BALKAN    STATES  237 

the  ecclesiastical  organization  of  different  bodies, 
or  to  their  intercourse  with  their  spiritual  heads. 

"The  citizens  in  all  states,  whether  merchants 
or  others,  shall  be  dealt  with,  in  Roumania,  with- 
out distinction  of  religion,  on  the  basis  of  perfect 
equality." 

This  plain  statement  safeguarded  the  rights  of 
the  Jews  as  could  any  formal  treaty  honestly 
meant  to  be  kept  and  adhered  to.  But  this  was 
furthest  from  the  mind  of  Roumania's  rulers  and 
statesmen,  and  no  sooner  was  the  Berlin  Congress 
adjourned  and  the  delegates  went  home,  than 
Roumania  applied  herself  to  the  task  of  circum- 
venting the  treaty  and  nullifying  its  provisions. 
The  placing  of  the  Jews  upon  a  footing  of  equal- 
ity was  most  distasteful  to  all  classes  of  the  popu- 
lation, and  not  the  least  so  to  King  Charles  who, 
a  true  Hohenzollern,  was  completely  under  the 
influence  of  his  Imperial  kinsman  in  Berlin  whose 
attitude  toward  the  Jews  had  been  outspokenly 
unfriendly.  Emperor  William  I  himself  stated 
that  he  had  "from  the  outset  most  strongly  dis- 
approved of  the  resolution  of  the  Congress  con- 
cerning the  Jewish  question,"  and  Prince  Karl 
Anton,  the  father  of  King  Charles,  in  a  letter 
dated  July  26,  1878,  consoles  his  son  that  the 
provisions  of  the  treaty  bearing  on  the  Jews  were 
mere  humane  generalities.  "It  is  left  for  the  leg- 
islative body  alone  to  phrase  them,  and  I  am 
convinced  that  later  on,  with  the  exception  of  the 
Alliance  Israelite,  no  rooster  will  crow  over  the 
forms  in  which  these  provisions  will  be  phrased." 
Charles  and  his  underlings  were  docile  followers 
of  this  sage  advice.  Lord  Salisbury  had  suggest- 
ed that  Article  44  of  the  treaty  be  inserted  bodily 
in  the  Roumanian  Constitution,  but  this  did  not 
suit  the  purpose  of  Bratianu  and  his  colleagues. 
Instead  a  constitutional  convention  was  sum- 


238  HISTORY   OF   THE   JEWS 

moned   which   substituted    for   the   clause   in   the 
Berlin  treaty  the  following: 

"Article  7:  Difference  in  religious  beliefs  and 
confessions  does  not  constitute,  in  Roumania,  an 
obstacle  to  the  obtainment  of  civil  and  political 
rights-  and  to  the  exercise  of  these  rights: 

1.  A  foreigner,  without  distinction  of  religion, 
and  whether  a  subject  or  not  of  a  foreign  gov- 
ernment,  can  become  naturalized  under  the   fol- 
lowing conditions: 

(a)  He  shall  address  to  the  government  an  ap- 
plication for  naturalization,  in  which  he  shall  in- 
dicate the  capital  he  possesses,  the  profession  or 
craft  which  he   follows,   and  his  abode  in  Rou- 
mania. 

(b)  He  shall  reside,  after  his  application,  ten 
years  in  the  country,  and  prove,  by  action,  that  he 
is  of  service  to  it. 

2.  The  following  may  be  exempted  from  the 
intermediary  stages: 

(a)  Those  who  have  brought  into  the  country 
industries,    useful   inventions,    or   talent,    or    who 
have   founded  large  establishments  of  commerce 
or  industry. 

(b)  Those  who,  born  or  bred  in  Roumania,  of 
parents   established   in   the   country,    have   never 
been  subjected,  either  themselves  or  their  parents, 
to  any  protection  by  a  foreign  power. 

(c)  Those  who  have  served  under  the  colors 
during  the  war  of  independence;  these  may  be 
naturalized  collectively  by  government  decree,  by 
a  single  resolution,  and  without  any  further  for- 
mality. 

3.  Naturalization   cannot  be  given   except  by 
law,  and  individually. 

4.  A  special  law  shall  determine  the  manner 
in  which  foreigners  may  establish  their  homes  on 
Roumanian  territory. 


THE    BALKAN    STATES  239 

5.  Only  Roumanians,  and  those  who  have  been 
naturalized  Roumanians,  can  buy  real  estate  in 
Roumania. 

Rights  already  acquired  shall  remain  in  force. 

International  agreements  at  present  existing 
shall  remain  in  force  in  all  the  clauses  and  terms 
therein  contained." 

In  this  manner  did  Roumania  succeed  in  cir- 
cumventing the  Treaty  of  Berlin.  She  did  not  go 
counter  to  the  principle  of  religious  liberty,  but 
she  made  it  practically  impossible  for  any  foreign- 
ers to  secure  naturalization,  and  the  Jews  were 
always  foreigners  in  Roumania  with  the  addi- 
tional hardship  of  not  having  any  other  govern- 
ment to  look  to  for  protection.  To  throw  sand 
in  the  eyes  of  the  world,  883  Jews  were  natural- 
ized in  a  body,  on  the  strength  of  their  partici- 
pation in  the  war,  by  a  special  vote  of  the  Cham- 
ber, the  rest  of  their  brethren,  numbering  250,000, 
remaining  an  outlawed  community  to  this  day. 
Yet  Roumania,  with  a  show"  of  self- justification, 
approached  Europe  in  1879  for  an  agreement  on 
this  infamous  constitutional  provision,  and  Eu- 
rope agreed.  She  trusted  to  Roumania's  promise 
to  live  up  to  the  spirit  of  the  Berlin  treaty  as  soon 
as  her  internal  affairs  permitted  it,  and  in  1880 
formally  declared  Roumania  as  an  independent 
state  on  the  strength  of  Article  7,  itself  a  mere 
subterfuge  for  evading  the  treaty.  Where  Ser- 
bia and  Bulgaria  have  honestly  striven  to  comply 
with  the  conditions  of  their  independence,  Rou- 
mania has  brazenly  defied  all  public  opinion  and 
not  only  failed  to  improve  the  lot  of  her  Jews  but 
has  steadily  and  fiendishly  contrived  to  make  it 
worse. 

From  1878  to  this  day  the  story  of  the  Rou- 
manian Jews  has  been  one  long  agony  with  scarce- 
ly any  intervals  of  relief.  Taking  Russia  as  her 


24O  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

model,  Roumania  has  enacted  a  number  of  laws 
similar  to  those  of  her  northern  neighbor,  ex- 
cluding Jews  from  the  professions  and  the  trades, 
driving  them  from  the  villages  and  barring  their 
children  from  the  public  schools,  high  schools  and 
universities.  The  oath  More  Judaico  was  not 
abolished  until  1904  under  pressure  from  West- 
ern Europe.  Declared  as  aliens  by  law,  Jews  be- 
came subject  to  expulsion  at  the  least  whim  of 
the  authorities,  and  the  latter  have  not  failed  to 
avail  themselves  of  the  weapon  thus  placed  in 
their  hands  for  weeding  out  all  such  "objection- 
able foreigners,"  in  reality  using  it  as  a  pretense 
for  extortion.  Some  of  the  most  noted  Jews  of 
the  land  were  thus  driven  across  the  frontier, 
among  them  men  like  Dr.  Moses  Caster,  the  great 
Zionist  leader,  Hakham  of  the  Spanish  and  Por- 
tuguese community  of  London,  and  probably  the 
most  renowned  rabbi  in  English  Jewry  to-day, 
the  historian  Dr.  E.  Schwartzfeld,  and  other  men 
of  note.  But  many  of  these  victims  of  an  inhu- 
man government  did  not  wait  to  be  expelled,  but 
voluntarily  took  up  the  wanderer's  staff  and  emi- 
grated to  England,  Palestine  and  more  especially 
America  whither  a  steady  stream  of  immigration 
has  been  flowing  all  through  the  past  generation. 
It  was  this  latter  circumstance,  the  large  influx 
of  immigrants  from  Roumania  as  the  result  of 
persecution,  which  in  1902  furnished  the  United 
States  government  with  the  desired  opportunity 
for  intervention  on  behalf  of  these  Jews.  The 
show  of  selfish  interest  on  the  part  of  America 
was  only  a  pretext,  the  real  motive  being  humani- 
tarian. Always  a  friend  of  the  Jews  as  of  all 
other  oppressed  races  and  nationalities,  America, 
while  not  a  signatory  to  the  Berlin  Treaty,  was 
ready  to  act  in  behalf  of  Roumania's  Jewish  vic- 
tims when  the  time  seemed  opportune,  and  at  the 


DR.  MOSES  CASTER 
(b.    1856) 


THE    BALKAN    STATES  24! 

instance  of  several  leading  American  Jews  like 
Jacob  H.  Schiff,  Oscar  S.  Straus,  Simon  Wolf, 
and  Lucius  L.  Littauer,  notwithstanding  the  dip- 
lomatic difficulties  that  presented  themselves,  Sec- 
retary of  State  John  Hay,  with  the  advice  and 
approval  of  President  Theodore  Roosevelt,  des- 
patched on  August  n,  1902,  his  famous  "Rou- 
manian Note"  to  the  American  Ambassadors  to 
the  signatory  powers,  Germany,  France,  Great 
Britain,  Italy,  Russia  and  Turkey,  with  instruc- 
tions that  it  be  transmitted  to  the  governments  to 
which  they  were  accredited.  It  was  a  great  state 
paper,  truly  representative  of  the  splendid  qualifi- 
cations and  lofty  humanitarianism  of  the  illus- 
trious statesman  who  penned  it.  Starting  out 
with  the  premise  that  forced  immigration  to  the 
United  States,  such  as  Roumania's  anti-Jewish 
policy  led  to,  was  detrimental  to  American  inter- 
ests, Hay  reminded  the  Roumanian  government 
that  the  full  equality  of  all  religious  creeds  and 
confessions  had  been  made  an  indispensable  con- 
dition of  Roumanian  independence,  that  by  pur- 
suing her  policy  of  oppression,  and  by  constantly 
adding  to  the  already  too  heavy  burdens,  she. was 
rendering  the  Jews  of  her  domain  "incapable  of 
lifting  themselves  from  the  enforced  degradation 
they  endure."  Citing  one  by  one  the  disabilities 
under  which  they  were  laboring,  and  the  evils 
they  have  led  to  among  both  the  Jews  themselves 
and  the  countries  to  which  they  are  being  forced 
to  emigrate,  the  Secretary  concludes  with  the  fol- 
lowing humane  and  withal  significant  statements: 
"This  government  cannot  be  a  tacit  party  to  such 
an  international  wrong.  It  is  constrained  to  pro- 
test against  the  treatment  to  which  the  Jews  of 
Roumania  are  subjected,  not  alone  because  it  has 
unimpeachable  right  to  remonstrate  against  the 
resultant  injury  to  itself,  but  in  the  name  of  hu- 


242  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

manity.  The  United  States  may  not  authori- 
tatively appeal  to  the  stipulations  of  the  Treaty 
of  Berlin,  to 'which  it  was  not  and  cannot  become 
a  signatory,  but  it  does  earnestly  appeal  to  the 
principles  consigned  therein,  because  they  are  the 
principles  of  international  law  and  eternal  justice, 
advocating  the  broad  toleration  which  that  sol- 
emn compact  enjoins  and  standing  ready  to  lend 
its  moral  support  to  the  fulfilment  thereof  by  its 
co-signatories,  for  the  act  of  Roumania  itself  has 
effectively  joined  the  United  States  to  them  as  an 
interested  party  in  this  regard." 

As  was  only  to  be  expected  this  protest  led  to 
no  practical  results,  the  European  powers  being 
too  preoccupied  with  their  own  domestic  and  dip- 
lomatic difficulties  to  take  up  anew  the  Roumanian 
Jewish  question,  with  the  exception  of  England 
alone,  whose  foreign  office  set  itself  in  communi- 
cation with  the  other  powers  on  the  subject,  with- 
out, however,  being  able  to  accomplish  anything. 
Roumania  herself  made  a  feeble  show  of  self- 
excuse  through  the  issuing  of  a  number  of 
pamphlets  in  French  in  which  she  repeated  all  ac- 
cusations against  the  Jews  in  justification  of  her 
treatment  of  them.  The  Hay  note,  however,  had 
one  decided  effect.  It  branded  Roumania  before 
the  High  Court  of  Civilization  as  the  perfidious 
and  immoral  nation  she  was,  and  coming  from  a 
government  so  powerful  in  the  councils  of  the  na- 
tions, the  moral  blow  thus  dealt  could  not  be  re- 
ceived without  wincing  even  by  the  brazen-faced 
government  of  Bucharest. 

European  nations  now  were  convinced  that  the 
Jews  had  a  loyal  friend  in  America,  and  the  ef- 
fect of  Hay's  message  could  not  have  been  lost 
even  on  Russia  at  whom,  indirectly,  the  note  was 
likewise  aimed.  The  position  of  the  Roumanian 
Jews,  however,  was  in  no  way  improved  by  Amer- 


THE    BALKAN    STATES  243 

ica's  stand,  and  the  oppressive  measures  contin- 
ued to  be  enacted  and  executed  with  the  utmost 
rigor.  During  the  Balkan  wars  when  Roumania 
showed  her  bad  faith  by  failing  to  naturalize,  as 
she  had  promised,  Jews  who  were  fighting  in  her 
armies,  many  of  the  Jewish  soldiers  expressed 
their  protest  and  resentment  by  marching  on  foot 
to  the  frontier  and  making  their  way  to  ports  of 
embarkation  for  America.  Leading  American 
Jews  again  utilized  the  opportunity  offered  by  the 
Peace  Conference  at  the  conclusion  of  the  Second 
Balkan  War  (1913)  by  urging  American  inter- 
vention on  behalf  of  Roumanian  Jewry. 

An  extensive  correspondence  with  the  State 
Department  was  carried  on  to  this  effect  by  Louis 
Marshall,  Cyrus  Adler  and  Herbert  Friedenwald, 
the  object  being  not  merely  to  help  the  Jews  na- 
tive to  Roumania  but  also  to  safeguard  the  rights 
of  the  Jews  in  the  territories  that  were  to  pass 
under  the  Roumanian  rule.  Similar  action  was 
taken  on  October  13,  1913,  by  the  London  Board 
of  Deputies  and  the  Anglo-Jewish  Association  in 
a  joint  memorial  they  addressed  to  Sir  Edward 
Grey,  the  British  Secretary  of  State  for  Foreign 
Affairs.  Despite,  however,  the  resolutions  passed 
by  the  American  Congress,  the  action  taken  by 
the  United  States  government  in  addressing  the 
Balkan  Peace  Conference,  and  the  assurances 
given  by  Sir  Edward  Grey,  nothing  was  accom- 
plished, Roumania  persisting  in  her  infamous 
course  as  before. 

There  is  a  glimmer  of  hope,  however,  that  the 
misfortunes  that  have  befallen  that  land  in  the 
course  of  the  Great  War,  when  most  of  her  terri- 
tory was  invaded  and  is  now  occupied  by  the 
armies  of  the  Central- European  Powers,  will  have 
a  sobering  effect  even  upon  Roumania.  In  no 
country  in  Europe  will  things  remain  as  they 


244  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

were  before  the  war,  and  the  change  will  be  for 
the  better.  Roumania  will  indeed  be  rehabili- 
tated in  most  of  her  possessions  and  allowed  to 
continue  as  a  sovereign  state  after  the  war,  but 
her  freedom  and  integrity  this  time  will  be  wholly 
dependent  upon  the  irrevocable  provision  of  the 
complete  and  unequivocal  enfranchisement  and 
liberation  of  her  Jews.  This  will  assuredly  be 
one  of  the  results  of  the  present  war  which  is  a 
struggle  for  democracy  and  freedom  in  their 
noblest  connotations.  Then  will  Roumania  be- 
come rehabilitated  not  only  politically  but  morally 
as  well  and  if  in  the  past,  notwithstanding  their 
unequalled  sufferings,  her  Jews  contributed  to 
the  sum  total  of  Jewish  culture  by  giving  to 
universal  Jewry  men  like  Israel  Baal  Shem,  the 
founder  of  Hassidism,  scholars  and  scientists  like 
Solomon  Schechter,  Moses  Caster,  Eli  Schwarz- 
feld,  C.  Lippe,  men  of  letters  like  Ronetti  Roman, 
the  poet,  and  Hebraists  of  distinction  like  M. 
Braunstein  and  M.  Brandstadter,  then  in  the  fu- 
ture, under  happier  conditions,  will  their  share  in 
Israel's  spiritual  life  doubtless  be  even  more  con- 
siderable. 


PROF.  SOLOMON   SCHECHTER 
(1847-1915) 


CHAPTER  IV 

AMERICAN  CONTINENT 
A.     THE    SEPHARDIC    AND    GERMAN    PERIODS 

Though  Jews  were  among  the  first  to  reach 
and  settle  in  America,  Jewish  financiers  having 
furnished  the  money  with  which  the  expedition 
of  discovery  was  made  possible,  and  Jewish  sail- 
ors having  accompanied  Columbus  on  his  most 
eventful  voyage — the  number  of  Jews  living  in 
North  and  South  America  was  very  small  even 
when  the  nineteenth  century  was  veering  toward 
its  decline.  Not  until  the  early  eighties  of  the 
last  century  did  Jews  settle  in  the  United  States 
in  considerable  numbers.  The  persecutions  and 
massacres  of  the  Jews  with  which  Czar  Alexan- 
der III  inaugurated  his  reign  were  the  immedi- 
ate cause  of  the  birth  of  the  large  American  Jew- 
ish community. 

Nevertheless,  the  foundation  of  what  was  des- 
tined to  become  one  of  the  strongest  and  richest 
of  Jewish  centres  had  been  laid.  The  Spanish 
and  Portuguese  Jews  who  found  their  way  to 
Canada  and  the  present  United  States  in  the  sev- 
enteenth and  eighteenth  centuries,  coming  from 
Holland,  England  and  Brazil,  soon  became  part 
of  the  new  life  that  was  budding  upon  the  virgin 
soil.  These  Jews  were  the  pioneers  of  Sephardic 

245 


246  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

Orthodoxy  in  America.  \Yith  them  came  the 
romanticism  of  religion,  the  reverence  and  vener- 
ation for  the  higher  spiritual  values  which  was  so 
beautifully  and  heroically  mirrored  in  the  life  of 
their  forefathers.  Jewish  scholarship  was  indeed 
rare  among  them,  but  instead  they  were  possessed 
of  an  extraordinary  degree  of  enthusiasm  for 
their  faith,  and  of  pride  in  their  racial  origin. 
The  little  cemetery  in  Chatham  Square  in  New 
York,  obtained  in  1656,  the  first  visible  sign  of 
Jewish  communal  life  in  the  New  World,  was  the 
forerunner  of  the  little  synagogue  that  was  soon 
to  take  up  its  place  and  function  in  the  tiny  Jew- 
ish community  on  the  Hudson.  For  well-nigh  two 
hundred  years  these  Jews  maintained  their  re- 
ligious life  as  best  they  could,  and  with  whatever 
spiritual  aid  from  the  European  world  they  could 
obtain.  And  though  their  numbers  had  not  in- 
creased greatly,  they  nevertheless  produced  a  few 
men  who  came  to  occupy  places  of  distinction  in 
the  larger  community,  such  as  Aaron  Hart  (Lon- 
don, 1724-Three  Rivers,  Quebec,  1800),  Colonel 
Isaac  Franks  (New  York,  1759- Philadelphia, 
1822),  \vho  served  in  various  capacities  in  the 
Revolutionary  War,  Rabbi  Gershom  Mendes 
Seixas  (New  York,  1745-1816),  minister  of  the 
Shearith  Israel  Congregation  in  New  York  who 
took  part  in  the  inauguration  ceremonies  of  Pres- 
ident Washington  in  1789,  and  Mordecai  Manuel 
Noah  (Philadelphia,  1785-New  York,  1851),  jour- 
nalist and  politician,  playwright  and  statesman, 
visionary  and  warm-hearted  Jew,  who  earned  for 
himself  a  special  place  of  honor  as  a  forerunner 
of  modern  Zionism  as  will  be  told  here  more  fully 
in  a  subsequent  chapter. 

Beginning  with  the  less  eventful  record  of  the 
Jews  of  Canada  as  a  more  convenient  starting 
point,  our  first  impression  is  the  similarity  which 


AMERICA  247 

the  story  of  the  Jews  of  the  Dominion  bears  in 
many  important  respects  to  that  of  their  brethren 
in  the  States,  though  it  begins  about  a  century 
later.  Here,  too,  Jews  of  Spanish  and  Portu- 
guese origin  were  the  first  to  settle,  and  the  first 
signs  of  organized  Jewish  religious  life  were  seen 
in  Montreal  where,  in  1768,  the  "Shearith  Israel" 
congregation  was  formed.  The  most  prominent 
of  these  Canadian  Jewish  pioneers  was  Lazarus 
David  (Swansea,  Wales,  1734-Montreal,  1776), 
who  was  a  large  land-owner  and  who  with  his 
family  became  noted  for  many  benefactions  to  the 
community.  His  eldest  son,  David  David  (Mon- 
treal, 1764-1824),  was  a  founder  and  director  of 
the  Bank  of  Montreal,  and  gave  to  the  Jews  of 
that  city  the  plot  of  land  for  the  erection  of  their 
first  synagogue.  A  grandson  of  Lazarus,  Aaron 
Hart  David  (Montreal,  1812-1882),  attained 
prominence  as  a  physician,  becoming  dean  of  the 
medical  faculty  and  professor  of  the  practice  of 
medicine  at  the  University  of  Bishop's  College, 
and  governor  of  the  College  of  Physicians  and 
Surgeons  of  Lower  Canada.  In  the  French  and 
Indian  War  (1754-1763),  in  which  England  was 
to  acquire  Canada  from  the  French,  a  number  of 
Jews  served  with  distinction  in  the  English 
armies,  some  of  them,  like  Aaron  Hart,  Emanuel 
de  Cordova,  Hananiel  Garcia  and  Isaac  Miranda, 
becoming  officers.  With  the  outbreak  of  the  Rev- 
olutionary War,  Canadian  Jews  were  divided  in 
their  sentiments,  several  of  them  becoming  mar- 
tyrs to  the  cause  of  American  independence.  One 
of  them,  David  Salisbury  Franks,  was  thrown  in 
prison  in  Montreal  as  a  rebel  and,  when  released, 
joined  the  revolutionary  forces.  Levy  Solomons, 
at  the  time  Parnas  of  the  Montreal  Congregation, 
also  showed  his  preference  for  the  cause  of  free- 
dom. Like  his  brother  in  faith,  Hyam  Solomon 


248  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

of  Philadelphia,  he  supplied  the  revolutionary 
army,  which  in  1775  invaded  Montreal,  with 
money  and  provisions,  never  to  be  reimbursed 
for  it.  With  the  departure  of  the  Americans, 
Solomons  at  once  became  an  object  of  persecution 
to  the  British,  who  expelled  him  from  the  city, 
only  to  allow  him  to  return  later.  These  Jews 
also  had  to  carry  on  a  struggle  for  the  establish- 
ment of  their  civil  rights.  This  first  centred 
about  the  person  of  Ezekiel  Hart  who,  in  1807, 
upon  his  election  to  the  Legislature  from  the  city 
of  Three  Rivers,  refused  to  be  sworn  in  in  the 
usual  form  "on  the  faith  of  a  Christian,"  but  in- 
sisted on  taking  the  oath  of  office  in  accordance 
with  Jewish  tradition.  His  political  opponents 
saw  in  this  incident  an  opportunity  for  depriving 
him  of  his  seat  and  at  once  raised  the  issue  of 
the  legality  of  his  representation,  succeeding  in 
having  him  expelled  in  the  following  year.  Hart 
continued  his  protests,  persistently  came  to  the 
Legislature  and  insisted  on  his  right  to  vote  and 
participate  in  the  deliberations.  The  acrimonious 
debates  and  stormy  sessions  which  attended  this 
course  finally  resulted  in  the  dissolution  of  the 
Chamber  (1809)  by  the  Governor.  The  Jews, 
seeing  in  this  a  case  of  vital  importance  to  their 
status  as  citizens,  kept  up  the  agitation  in  behalf 
of  their  complete  legal  emancipation,  and  at  their 
instance  a  bill  was  introduced  in  Parliament 
(1829)  authorizing  them  to  keep  a  register  of 
births,  marriages  and  deaths,  which  became  a  law 
by  royal  sanction  on  January  13,  1831.  Encour- 
aged by  this  victory,  they,  in  that  same  year,  pe- 
titioned the  Legislature  for  the  recognition  of 
their  full  civil  riglits  and,  on  March  16  of  that 
year,  a  bill  to  that  effect  was  passed  in  the  As- 
sembly and  later  in  the  Council,  becoming  a  law 
on  June  5,  1832.  The  Canadian  Parliament  was 


AMERICA  249 

thus  thrown  open  to  Jewish  representatives  some 
twenty-six  years  before  the  same  privilege  was 
accorded  to  their  co-religionists  in  England. 

Not  until  1845  was  there  any  communal  Jewish 
life  outside  of  Montreal.  In  that  year  the  Jews 
of  Toronto  found  themselves  strong  enough  nu- 
merically to  organize  a  congregation,  this  being 
followed  in  1852  by  the  acquisition  of  a  cemetery. 
In  1846  Montreal  saw  the  organization  of  a  Ger- 
man-Polish congregation  which,  however,  proved 
abortive,  a  more  successful  attempt  being  fol- 
lowed in  1858.  Gradually  a  number  of  Jewish 
settlements  sprang  up  in  different  parts  of  the 
Dominion,  resulting  in  the  formation  of  congrega- 
tions in  Victoria,  B.  C.  (1862),  in  Hamilton,  On- 
tario (1882),  in  Winnipeg  (1884),  Halifax,  St. 
John,  Ottawa  and  New  London,  while  in  Quebec 
the  beginnings  of  the  Jewish  community  go  back 
to  1853.  After  the  Russian  riots  of  1881  a  num- 
ber of  the  victims  found  their  way  into  Canada 
and  added  considerably  to  the  Jewish  population, 
not,  however,  in  as  great  a  proportion  as  in  the 
States.  With  them  came  an  enlargement  of  Jew- 
ish communal  activity.  New  congregations  were 
formed,  benevolent  and  educational  institutions 
were  founded,  agricultural  colonies,  aided  by  the 
Baron  de  Hirsch  Fund  and,  later,  by  the  Jewish 
Colonization  Association,  were  started  with  vary- 
ing degrees  of  success,  while  Reform  Judaism, 
Zionism  and  other  great  movements  of  later  years 
found  a  following.  As  in  the  United  States  so  in 
Canada  the  descendants  of  the  pioneer  Jews  of 
Spanish  and  Portuguese  stock  are  now  over- 
whelmingly outnumbered  by  the  later  settlers 
though  a  few  of  them  are  still  prominent  socially 
and  politically,  the  family  names  of  Hart,  Ascher, 
de  Sola  and  Samuel  still  being  among  the  more 
notable  in  Canadian  Jewry. 


250  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

It  is  to  the  United  States  that  we  must  turn  for 
what  was  destined  to  be  a  most  glorious  chapter 
in  Jewish  annals.  Within  the  territory  compris- 
ing- the  vast  stretches  of  land  bordering  on  the 
two  great  oceans  and  extending  from  the  Cana- 
dian border-line  in  the  north  to  the  Mexican  fron- 
tier in  the  south,  the  descendants  of  the  ancient 
race  were  to  build  up  a  community  which,  for  ma- 
terial wealth  and  spiritual  potentiality,  has  never 
been  surpassed. 

The  time  in  which  our  period  begins  saw  the 
genesis  of  German-Jewish  migration  to  the  United 
States.  Until  1848  the  number  of  Jews  who 
came  from  Western  Europe  was  very  small.  So 
long  as  the  prospects  for  complete  political  eman- 
cipation were  good  in  Germany  and  Austria-Hun- 
gary, there  was  no  particular  desire  on  the  part 
of  the  Jews  of  those  countries  to  seek  refuge  and 
freedom  in  the  far-off  land  across  the  sea.  Then 
came  the  year  1848  with  its  revolutions  and  the 
political  reactions  which  followed,  and  many  Ger- 
man and  Austrian  Jews  who  had  taken  a  prom- 
inent part  in  the  uprisings  found  themselves  com- 
pelled to  flee  from  their  native  lands.  They  made 
their  way  to  America  and  took  up  their  homes  in 
New  York,  Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  Cincinnati 
and  the  other  large  centres  where  a  number  of 
their  countrymen  had  preceded  them.  Soon  they 
were  to  make  themselves  felt  in  the  Jewish  and  the 
general  life  of  the  land  economically  as  well  as 
politically.  In  1849  when  gold  was  discovered  in 
California  many  of  those  immigrants  sought  out 
the  mining  camps  of  that  far-western  state,  en- 
riched themselves  by  trading  and  mining,  and  on 
their  return  laid  the  foundations  of  the  large  Jew- 
ish banking  and  mercantile  houses  which  were 
destined  to  play  a  not  insignificant  part  in  the 


AMERICA  251 

development  of  American  industry  and  com- 
merce. 

This,  however,  was  the  less  important  role  the 
German  Jew  was  to  play  in  the  United  States. 
In  the  religious  life  of  the  community  his  was  to 
be  a  more  prominent  share.  It  was  due  to  him 
that  American  Judaism  assumed  a  certain  definite 
aspect,  and  developed  along  lines  unknown  there- 
tofore. What  is  known  as  "American  Reform 
Judaism"  is  the  product  of  the  German-American 
Jew,  imported,  it  is  true,  from  the  old  world  yet 
in  the  free  environment  of  the  New  World  al- 
lowed so  wide  and*  unlimited  a  scope  as  to  enable 
it  to  undergo  many  fundamental  changes  and  to 
become  a  movement  greatly  varying  in  doctrine 
and  ceremonial  from  the  Reform  which  had  its 
inception  in  Germany.  It  is  this  phase  of  Ger- 
man-Jewish achievement  which  must  here  claim 
our  greatest  attention. 

The  American  Jewish  Reform  movement  of  the 
present  day  seems  indigenous  to  the  soil,  a  dis- 
tinctively American  way  of  preaching  and  prac- 
ticing the  Jewish  religion.  This  was  not  the  case 
when  the  Reform  movement  first  made  its  appear- 
ance in  America  which  may  be  said  to  have  been 
superimposed  upon  the  American  Jews  by  a  few 
German-born  and  German-preaching  Rabbis,  who 
came  to  the  United  States  immediately  preceding 
or  along  with  the  immigration  wave  of  1848  and 
the  years  following.*  It  is  true,  the  first  Ameri- 

*  "America,"  says  Dr.  E.  Schreiber  in  his  "Reformed  Judaism  and 
Its  Pioneers"  (p.  381),  "has  entered  upon  the  heritage  of  German 
Reform  Judaism.  In  fact  Reform  Judaism  in  this  country  (Amer- 
ica) is  nothing  more  and  nothing  less  than  German  Reform  Juda- 
ism." He  also  quotes  Geiger  as  saying  of  the  Philadelphia  Rab- 
binical Conference  of  1869:  "Here  we  meet  with  flesh  of  our  flesh, 
spirit  of  our  spirit.  The  men  who  controlled  this  Conference  are 
Germans  who  crossed  the  ocean,  who  brought  to  America  their 
knowledge  and  theological  point  of  view,  who  still  are  intellectually 
nurtured  from  the  sources  of  its  (Germany's)  spiritual  life,  but  who 
in  free  America  are  enabled  to  a  more  consistent  and  more  ener- 
getic activity.  Here  are  names  of  sterling  characters  in  their  former 
homes  in  the  fatherland,  very  dear,  brave  old  friends."  (p.  369.) 


252  HISTORY    OF   THE   JEWS 

can  Jewish  Congregation  to  adopt  a  Reform  plat- 
form as  early  as  1824  was  the  "Reformed  So- 
ciety of  Israelites"  of  Charleston,  S.  C.  But, 
aside  from  the  fact  that  that  congregation  was 
the  only  one  in  its  day  as  such  and  remained 
so  until  the  Reform  labors  of  Wise  and  Lilienthal 
were  beginning  to  be  felt,  it  is  not  improbable 
that  the  Charleston  community  was  itself,  in 
some  way,  influenced  by  the  Reform  agitation 
that  had  been  going  on  in  Europe  in  those  years, 
the  declarations  made  by  the  Jewish  leaders  who 
participated  in  the  Sanhedrin  convoked  by  Napo-1 
Icon  (1807),  the  reforms  introduced  by  Israel 
Jacobson  at  Seesen  and  Berlin,  and,  finally,  the 
famous  controversy  which  centred  about  the  Ham- 
burg Reform  Temple  founded  by  Kley  and  Salo- 
mon (1818).  The  bulk  of  American  Jewry  to- 
ward the  middle  of  the  last  century  had  remained 
steadfast  in  their  orthodox  beliefs  and  practices, 
this  being  the  rule  not  only  with  the  native  Ameri- 
can Jews  of  Spanish-Portuguese  descent,  but  also 
with  the  immigrant  Jews  from  Germany. 

When  Isaac  Mayer  Wise  (Steingrub,  Bohemia, 
iSiQ-Cincinnati,  1900)  landed  in  New  York  in 
1846,  there  was  not  a  single  congregation  of  pro- 
gressive tendencies  in  that  city.  Of  the  seven 
congregations  he  found  there,  he  tells  us  in  his 
"Reminiscences,"  the  Portuguese  employed  a  ritual 
"just  as  antiquated  and  tedious  as  the  German 
and  the  Polish  although  more  decorous,  dignified 
and  classical."  Orthodoxy  in  America  in  those 
days  was  not  synonymous  with  Talmudic  schol- 
arship, and  when  Wise,  on  a  visit  to  the  English- 
Polish  synagogue  on  Elm  Street,  asked  the  Sha- 
mash  (sexton)  for  a  volume  of  the  "Mishnah," 
"that  individual  laughed  so  mockingly  that  I  read- 
ily perceived  what  a  sign  of  greenness  it  was  on 
my  part  to  ask  for  an  ancient  Hebrew  book  in 


ISAAC  MAYER  WISE 
(1819-1900) 


AMERICA  253 

the  New  World,  and  that  too  in  an  orthodox 
synagogue."  Dr.  Max  Lilienthal,  who  had  preced- 
ed Wise  in  America  by  a  short  time  after  his  un- 
fortunate educational  experiments  in  Russia,  and 
who  was  later  to  play  an  important  part  in  the 
American  Jewish  Reform  movement,  was  himself 
strictly  orthodox  at  the  time  Wise  first  met  him, 
and  as  such  occupied  the  position  of  rabbi  of  the 
three  leading  German  orthodox  congregations 
of  the  city.  He  would  not  go  with  uncovered 
head  even  in  his  own  home,  and  closely  adhered 
to  all  the  minutiae  of  the  Shulhan  Arukh.  Tem- 
ple Emanuel,  which  later  became  one  of  the 
strongholds  of  Reform  in  America,  was  but  little 
different.  It  still  observed  Tisha  b'Ab,  the  wo- 
men were  partitioned  off  from  the  men,  and  the 
music  was  furnished  by  a  boys'  choir.  Dr.  Merz- 
bacher,  its  Rabbi,  was  possessed  of  progressive 
ideas  which,  however,  he  dared  not  put  into  prac- 
tice. He  looked  discouragingly  upon  the  religious 
future  of  American  Jewry,  and  spoke  pityingly  to 
Wise  when  the  latter  disclosed  to  him  his  deter- 
mination to  devote  himself  to  the  task  of  bringing 
the  Jewish  household  in  America  in  order. 

In  large  measure  this  movement  was  the  work 
of  one  man  with  whose  life  and  activities  it  is 
inextricably  interwoven.  To  Isaac  Mayer  Wise 
belongs  the  credit  for  reshaping  the  destinies  of 
American  Judaism.  A  man  of  attractive  person- 
ality and  strong  convictions,  a  visionary  and  ideal- 
ist, a  forceful  preacher  and  a  trenchant  writer, 
he  soon  after  his  arrival  foresaw  the  wonderful 
possibilities  for  religious  work  in  the  New  World. 
He  was  facing  a  struggling  and  stormy  career, 
but  the  difficulties  of  the  task  only  attracted  him 
to  it  all  the  more.  All  around  him  he  saw  chaos 
and  confusion,  disorganization  and  dissension,  ig- 
norance of  religion  and  deep-seated  contempt  for 


254  HISTORY   OF   THE   JEWS 

everything  connected  with  Jews  and  Judaism.  It 
was  under  such  disheartening  conditions  that 
Wise  chose  to  throw  in  his  lot  with  his  people  and 
to  labor  for  their  spiritual  uplift.  He  concluded, 
after  familiarizing  himself  with  conditions  as 
they  obtained  in  many  of  the  Jewish  communities, 
that  the  salvation  of  Judaism  would  arise  not 
from  New  York  or  any  of  the  large  eastern  cen- 
tres, but  from  the  smaller  communities  and  princi- 
pally from  those  in  the  South  and  the  West. 
"My  experiences,"  he  says  in  his  "Reminiscences," 
"in  New  Haven,  Albany  and  Syracuse  were  of 
the  most  signal  importance.  These  German  Jew- 
ish immigrants,  mused  I,  have  not  lost  their  love 
for  Judaism  under  the  influence  of  their  new  po- 
litical and  social  conditions.  Hence  desire  for 
organization.  They  form  congregations,  build 
synagogues,  and  feel  a  longing  for  the  living 
word.  .  .  .  There  are  life  and  energy  in  this  new 
Judaism  whether  it  now  be  conscious  or  uncon- 
scious. The  people  lack  culture;  they  do  not  pos- 
sess a  true  appreciation  of  the  conditions  among 
which  they  live.  'Tis  well  I  have  found  my  voca- 
tion and  my  mission." 

He  began  his  rabbinical  work  in  America  as 
minister  of  Beth  El  Congregation  of  Albany  in 
1846  where  he  soon  set  about  introducing  many 
reforms  such  as  the  organization  of  a  choir,  the 
preaching  of  a  sermon  regularly  every  week,  and 
the  abolition  of  certain  Hebrew  prayers  deemed 
unnecessary  and  cumbersome  to  the  service.  He 
also  modified  the  custom  of  the  sale  of  Mizvot 
on  the  Sabbath  and  the  holidays.  In  our  day 
such  reforms  are  regarded  as  essential  even  in 
the  most  conservative  of  congregations.  But  in 
Wise's  time  in  Albany  these  moderate  measures 
met  with  the  displeasure  of  a  large  number  of  the 
congregation  who,  under  the  leadership  of  Louis 


AMERICA  255 

Spanier,  president  of  the  synagogue,  endeavored 
in  many  ways  to  block  his  efforts.  The  gifted 
and  eloquent  rabbi,  however,  was  still  very  popu- 
lar with  his  people.  Finally,  after  several  years 
of  friction,  the  opposition  became  stronger  and 
bolder.  When  in  1850  the  Reform  Congregation 
Beth  Elohim  of  Charleston,  S.  C.,  extended  a  call 
to  Wise,  which  he  declined,  the  incident,  instead 
of  arousing  the  pride  of  his  people  in  their  rabbi, 
was  made  use  of  by  his  enemies  for  his  undoing. 
Charges  were  preferred  against  him,  instigated 
by  president  Spanier,  that  he  had  denied  the  com- 
ing of  the  Messiah  and  the  bodily  resurrection  of 
the  dead,  that  he  had  declared  prayers  in  Hebrew 
a  mere  superstitious  performance  and  the  Tephi- 
lin  and  Zizit  ceremonies  as  superfluous  and 
meaningless,  that  he  wrote  on  Rosh  Hashanah, 
indulged  in  physical  exercise  on  the  Sabbath  day, 
and  ridiculed  the  woman's  ritual  bath.  Wise  of- 
fered to  defend  himself  but  was  refused  a  hear- 
ing, in  consequence  of  which  his  friends,  headed 
by  vice-president  Sporberg,  withdrew  from  the 
meeting.  His  enemies  then  declared  the  contract 
with  the  rabbi  void,  refusing  even  to  pay  him  his 
back-salary.  When  Wise  was  informed  of  this 
action  he  refused  to  abide  by  it,  declared  that  it 
was  contrary  to  law  and  that  he  would  continue 
to  perform  the  duties  of  his  office.  On  the  New 
Year,  which  occurred  two  days  later,  though  re- 
fused a  seat  on  the  pulpit,  Wise  made  his  way  to 
the  Ark  to  recite  the  customary  prayer  before 
the  reading  from  the  Scroll,  when  Spanier 
stepped  up  and  struck  at  him  with  his  fist.  A 
great  uproar  ensued  among  the  worshippers,  Wise 
made  his  way  home  amidst  pain  and  anguish,  and 
later  was  arrested  by  a  constable  as  a  disturber  of 
the  peace  and  of  a  public  worship.  His  useful- 
ness in  Albany  seemed  at  an  end.  His  friends, 


256  HISTORY   OF   THE   JEWS 

however,  stood  by  him,  and  seceding  from  Beth 
El  organized  a  new  congregation  under  the  name 
of  "Anshe  Emet,"  where  free  play  was  allowed 
him  to  carry  out  his  cherished  reform  ideas. 

Meanwhile  Wise  had  become  a  national  even 
more  than  a  local  celebrity.  A  man  of  studious 
habits  and  talented  as  a  writer,  he  made  use  of 
his  spare  time  to  add  to  his  knowledge  of  Jewish 
literature,  and  to  write  a  number  of  learned  trea- 
tises for  the  Jewish  periodicals  then  in  existence, 
the  "Occident,"  edited  by  the  Reverend  Isaac 
Leeser  of  Philadelphia,  and  the  "Asmonean," 
edited  by  Robert  Lyon  of  New  York.  He  also 
wrote  a  "History  of  the  Israelitish  Nation  from 
Abraham  to  the  Present  Time,  Vol.  I,"  which  was 
published  prior  to  the  close  of  his  Albany  career. 
In  all  of  his  writings  he  fearlessly  spoke  his  mind 
upon  the  needed  reforms  in  the  synagogue,  and 
sought  to  convince  his  readers  of  the  futility  of 
many  of  the  customs  and  beliefs  that  have  accumu- 
lated in  Judaism  in  the  course  of  the  ages.  His 
essay  on  "Principles  of  Judaism,"  published  in  the 
"Occident"  in  1851,  shows  the  advance  his  views 
had  made  since  he  first  entered  upon  his  career  as 
a  Reformer.  He  denies  that  the  Bible  is  opposed 
to  ritualistic  reform  and  that  the  Prophets  teach 
bodily  resurrection  and  the  coming  of  a  personal 
Messiah.  "Though  I  have  found  many  doctrines 
and  opinions  in  the  works  of  antiquity  to  which  I 
am  opposed,  I  nevertheless  venerate  these  incom- 
parable treasures  for  their  great  value  as  a  whole. 
But  when  the  Talmud  comes  into  conflict  with 
the  facts  of  natural  philosophy,  or  with  events  as 
expressed  in  history,  and  their  natural  results,  I 
am  fearless  on  the  side  of  truth." 

Yet  Wise's  advocacy  of  Reform  emanated  from 
a  positive  rather  than  a  negative  attitude  toward 
Judaism,  making  him  the  constructive  rather  than 


AMERICA  257 

the  destructive  proponent  of  what  in  course  of 
time  became  the  leading  ideas  of  Reform  Judaism. 
To  Judaism  he  ascribes  four  main  principles, 
namely:  (i)  One  God;  (2)  Man  the  image  of 
God;  (3)  Man  accountable  to  God;  (4)  Israel  the 
chosen  servant  of  God  for  the  promulgation  of 
these  truths  to  mankind  at  large.  "These  four 
truths  are  plainly  announced  in  the  Pentateuch, 
re-echoed  by  the  Psalmist  and  by  each  of  the 
Prophets.  Nature  and  history  do  not  contradict 
them,  but  they  are  the  living  witnesses,  they  bear 
the  strongest  evidence  to  the  verity  of  all  these 
four  dogmas,  and  every  Jew  believes  them  and 
defends  them  with  his  life,  liberty  and  property; 
and  if  he  ceases  to  do  so  he  has  ceased  to  be  a 
Jew."  But  the  purport  of  this  need  and  urgency 
of  reforms  is  not  merely  for  academic  discussion, 
but  because  the  very  future  of  Judaism  is  staked 
upon  their  acceptance  or  rejection:  "Doctrines 
which  are  opposed  by  sound  common  sense,  by 
the  very  facts  of  nature,  by  the  Bible  itself, 
aroused  the  suspicion  of  rational  .men,  and  they 
rejected  not  doctrines  alone  but  the  whole  system 
of  which  they  form  a  part,  made  hundreds  of 
indifferent  spectators  to  our  sacred  cause,  caused 
others  to  overthrow  the  whole  structure  of  Juda- 
ism. The  time  of  a  blind  and  uninquiring  faith 
is  gone  indeed  now  with  rational  and  reasoning 
man.  Lay  your  hand  on  your  heart,  be  calm  and 
honest,  and  ask  yourselves  whether  you  can  jus- 
tify your  cause  before  God,  if  coming  generations 
of  Israel  will  be  lost  to  our  sacred  cause,  because 
you  imposed  on  them  doctrines  which  caused  them 
to  reject  the  whole  system?  I  could  not.  Or  do 
you  think  a  generation  grown  up  in  a  free  and 
enlightened  country  will  not  do  so?  I  do  not,  and 
therefore  I  think  it  my  sacred  mission  to  teach  an 
enlightened  and  pure  Judaism,  to  remove  as  much 


258  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

mysticism  as  possible  from  the  system  of  our 
faith,  to  give  as  much  rational  evidence  for  it  as 
I  can  bring  forward,  and  if  I  am  wrong  I  am 
honest,  and  God  will  not  judge  me  too  severely." 
On  its  practical  side,  Reform  has  for  its  object 
the  dissemination  of  the  knowledge  of  Judaism 
among  both  Jews  and  non-Jews,  the  former,  that 
they  may  the  more  clearly  perceive  the  beauty  and 
moral  worth  of  Judaism ;  the  latter,  that  they  may 
lose  their  prejudice  and  hatred  for  all  things  Jew- 
ish. Wise  realized  that  the  greatest  drawback  in 
the  religious  life  of  the  American  Jew  was  the 
lack  of  educated  rabbis,  men  well  versed  in  both 
Hebrew  and  secular  learning,  who  could  influence 
the  Jewish  masses  by  their  leadership  and  elo- 
quence. Since  the  rabbi  is  the  all-important  func- 
tionary of  the  synagogue,  Wise  believed  that  the 
Hazzan,  or  Cantor,  was  a  useless  luxury  for  the 
small  and  impecunious  congregation,  whose  office 
should  therefore  be  abolished,  leaving  it  to  the 
rabbi  to  read  the  prayers  as  well  as  preach,  and  to 
the  choir  to  chant  the  hymns  and  responses.  To 
make  this  practicable,  it  is  imperative  that  the  rit- 
ualistic part  of  a  service  be  shortened,  thus  bring- 
ing it  within  proper  limits  and  avoiding  the  risk 
of  fatiguing  the  worshippers.  As  far  as  possible 
the  English  language  should  be  employed  for  the 
benefit  of  the  young  and  rising  generation.  But 
in  order  to  secure  English-preaching  rabbis  there 
was  need  for  the  establishment  of  a  rabbinical 
seminary  in  America,  and  this  could  not  be  done 
except  through  a  union  of  all  the  congregations 
of  the  land.  Again  and  again  he  reverts  to  this 
plea  for  union  and  for  an  American-educated  rab- 
binate in  his  numerous  articles  in  the  "Occident" 
and  "Asmonean."  The  unsuccessful  attempts  of 
both  himself  and  Lilienthal  to  bring  about  a  union 
of  rabbis  he  greatly  deplored,  but  he  never  aban- 


AMERICA  259 

doned  hope  of  seeing  his  pet  plans  realized.  Time 
justified  his  expectations,  and  many  years  before 
his  death  Wise  saw  the  "Union  of  American  He- 
brew Congregations,"  the  "Hebrew  Union  Col- 
lege" for  the  training  of  rabbis,  and  the  "Central 
conference  of  American  Rabbis"  as  active  and 
potent  forces  in  the  life  of  American  Israel. 

But  these  hopes  were  not  to  materialize  while 
Wise  remained  in  Albany.  Fortunately  for  him 
and  for  the  cause  he  espoused,  he  was  destined 
early  in  his  Reform  career  to  see  his  lot  thrown  in 
with  a  leading  Western  community  where  recog- 
nition was  freely  given  to  his  ability  and  earnest- 
ness and  where  he  could  secure  all  the  needed 
moral  and  financial  support  for  the  realization  of 
his  ambitious  plans.  In  1854  Wise  was  called  to 
Congregation  Bene  Yeshurum  of  Cincinnati,  a 
young  and  progressive  body,  which  elected  him 
for  life  and  where  the  conditions  for  work  and 
achievement  wrere  pleasant  and  stimulating.  Short- 
ly after  taking  up  his  work  there  Wise  estab- 
lished the  two  weekly  organs,  the  "Israelite"  in 
English  and  the  "Deborah"  in  German,  both  of 
which  he  continued  to  edit  until  his  death  in  igoo. 
The  year  following  he  was  joined  in  Cincinnati  by 
his  colleague  and  life-long  friend  Dr.  Max  Lilien- 
thal  who  accepted  the  rabbinate  of  Bene  Israel,  the 
other  Reform  congregation  of  the  city.  The  rela- 
tions of  the  two  eminent  rabbis  were  always  ami- 
cable, the  two  working  side  by  side  in  the  local 
affairs  of  the  community  and  in  the  larger  work 
for  a  united  American  Israel  which  soon  was  to 
assume  national  proportions. 

From  the  day  of  his  arrival  in  Cincinnati  Wise 
looms  upon  the  American  Jewish  horizon  as  the 
great  leader  and  organizer,  the  fearless  champion 
of  truth  and  the  man  who  takes  his  work  too  seri- 
ously to  be  content  with  small  and  local  achieve- 


260  HISTORY   OF   THE   JEWS 

ments.      The    two    organs    he    called    into   being 
became  a  powerful  weapon  in  his  hands  which  he 
used  with   full  effect  whenever  the  occasion  de- 
manded.    Lilienthal  was  only  next  to  Wise  in  his 
fighting  qualities,  in  his  firm  adherence  to  a  pur- 
pose, and  in  the  persuasiveness  of  his  logic  as  an 
exponent  of  Reform.     The  two  soon  became  the 
Jakhin  and  the  Boas  by  which  the  sanctuary  of 
Reform  Judaism  was  supported.    Wise  established 
his  claim  to  national  leadership  by  first  setting  his 
own  house  in  order  and  effectively  introducing  in 
his  community  those  reforms  which  he  wanted  to 
see  prevail  throughout  the  land.     He  beautified 
the  worship,  making  it  an  aesthetic  and  spiritual 
delight  by  the  fine  singing,   the  eloquent  and  in- 
structive preaching  and  the  dignity  and  decorum 
with  which  the  entire  service  was  permeated.    He 
carried  out  his  idea  of  a  ritual  by  compiling  the 
new    prayer    book   named   by   him    the    "Minhag 
America,"  which  was  soon  adopted  by  many  other 
congregations   of   the   land.      In   addition   to   the 
Saturday  morning  service  he  introduced  the  late 
Friday  night  lecture  which  became  very  popular 
in  Cincinnati  and  was  eagerly  taken  up  by  other 
cities.     When  in  the  course  of  time  several  ultra- 
Reform  rabbis  began  the  advocacy  of  more  radi- 
cal innovations  and  proceeded  to  introduce  Sun- 
day  services   to   the   detriment   of   the   historical 
Sabbath,  Wise  opposed  their  efforts  as  ill-advised, 
pointing  to  his  Friday  night  services  as  aiming  to 
furnish  spiritual  help  to  those  who  are  compelled 
to  work  on  the  Sabbath.     He  made  a  model  school 
out  of  the  "Talmud  Yelodim  Institute"  for  the  re- 
ligious education  of  the  congregation's  youth.     In 
the  larger  Jewish  world  Wise  made  himself  felt 
as  the  ever  alert  watchman  of  his  people's  inter- 
ests, using  the  editorial  columns  of  the  ''Israelite" 
to  ward  off  whatever  blows  of  anti-Jewish  preju- 


AMERICA  26l 

dice  there  were  here  and  there  aimed  at  the  Jews. 
His  remonstrance  against  the  disabilities  experi- 
enced by  American  Jews  in  Switzerland  and  Rus- 
sia, as  well  as  his  successful  campaign  against 
General  Grant's  drastic  and  uncalled-for  order  of 
expulsion  against  all  Jews  within  the  territory 
comprised  by  his  department,  of  which  more  will 
be  said  here  later,  and  the  quick  results  he  ob- 
tained, is  illustrative  of  the  fearlessness  and  ef- 
fectiveness of  his  work  as  a  Jewish  leader. 

And  all  this  time  he  did  not  cease  advocating 
his  favorite  idea  of  a  college  for  the  education  of 
rabbis.  As  early  as  1855  an  attempt  was  made 
by  him  to  open  such  an  institution  in  Cincinnati 
under  the  name  of  "Zion  College"  which  had 
fourteen  students,  two  of  them  Christians,  and 
three  paid  teachers  besides  Wise  and  Lilienthal 
who  gave  their  services  gratis.  The  college  was 
short-lived  for  lack  of  support.  The  greatest 
difficulty  Wise  experienced  was  in  getting  the  con- 
gregations of  the  East  to  second  his  plans  and 
support  his  efforts.  Those  congregations,  their 
rabbis  and  leaders,  pioneers  among  Jewish  insti- 
tutions in  America,  were  forever  jealous  of  the 
young  and  ambitious  West  and  looked  askance  at 
all  plans  for  Jewish  work  that  did  not  originate 
in  New  York  or  Philadelphia.  This  was  clearly 
evidenced  by  the  failure  of  the  conference  called 
at  the  instance  of  Wise  in  1855,  in  the  City  of 
Cleveland,  for  the  purpose  of  establishing  a  union 
of  Hebrew  congregations,  whether  Reform  or 
orthodox,  of  organizing  a  "Regular  Synod  Com- 
posed of  Delegates  of  Congregations,"  of  discus- 
sing plans  for  a  "Minhag  America"  prayer  book, 
adapted  to  the  needs  of  American  congregations, 
a  plan  which  Wise  carried  out  later  as  already 
stated,  and  of  deciding  upon  "A  Plan  for  Scho- 
lastic Education"  by  which  was  understood  a 


262  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

rabbinical  college.  Laymen  were  invited  as  well 
as  rabbis,  and  there  were  present  representa- 
tives from  congregations  in  Albany,  New  York, 
Philadelphia,  Baltimore  and  Boston  in  the  East, 
Cincinnati,  Chicago,  Cleveland  and  Detroit  in  the 
West,  and  Richmond  and  Louisville  in  the  South. 
Probably  the  weak  point  of  that  conference  was 
its  attempt  to  consolidate  the  orthodox  and  the 
Reform  elements,  something  which  has  at  no  time 
since  proven  successful.  Yet  in  those  days  the 
line  of  demarcation  between  the  two  factions  had 
not  yet  been  drawn  as  sharply  as  in  later  years. 
Reform  was  still  in  the  making  and  was  still  trail- 
ing after  its  orthodox  parent.  There  was  a 
semblance  of  harmony  at  the  sessions.  Wise  was 
elected  president,  Conn  of  Albany  vice-president, 
while  Lilienthal  acted  as  secretary.  Isaac  Leeser, 
known  to  fame  as  the  foremost  orthodox  leader 
of  his  day  in  America,  was  also  there,  and  lent 
his  assent  to  the  proceedings.  A  declaration  of 
principles  was  adopted  which  stated  that  (i)  the 
Bible  is  of  immediate  Divine  Origin;  (2)  the  Tal- 
mud contains  the  Traditional,  Legal  and  Logical 
Exposition  of  the  Biblical  Laws  which  must  be 
expounded  and  practised  according  to  the  Com- 
ments of  the  Talmud;  (3)  the  Resolutions  of  the 
Synod  in  accordance  with  the  above  Principles 
are  Legally  Valid;  (4)  Statutes  and  Ordinances 
Contrary  to  the  Laws  of  the  Land  are  Invalid. 
Committees  were  also  appointed  to  draw  up  plans 
for  the  proposed  "Minhag  America,"  the  Synod,* 
the  Rabbinical  College,  etc.  But  these  committees 
never  reported,  for  there  was  no  further  meeting 
of  this  conference.  No  sooner  had  the  delegates 
returned  to  their  home  than  the  storm  broke  loose 
which  upset  all  of  the  plans.  Leeser  of  Phila- 
delphia underwent  a  change  of  heart  and  from 
friend  turned  foe;  Dr.  David  Einhorn,  who  had 


AMERICA  263 

just  arrived  in  Baltimore  as  rabbi  of  Har  Sinai 
Congregation,  found  the  proceedings  of  the  con- 
ference too  conciliatory  and  reactionary  to  suit  his 
own  reform  ideas,  and  let  loose  a  torrent  of  bit- 
ter criticism  in  his  German  monthly,  the  "Sinai," 
The  congregations  Beth  Elohim  of  Charleston,  S. 
C,  and  Emanuel  of  N.  Y.,  were  also  dissatisfied 
with  its  platform  and  protested  against  it.  The 
project  of  a  united  American  Israel  had  once 
again  to  be  deferred  to  a  more  propitious  day. 

Other  eastern  leaders  followed  the  example  of 
Leeser  the  extreme  orthodox,  and  of  Einhorn  the 
radical  Reformer,  and  joined  the  forces  of  opposi- 
tion to  Wise  and  his  colleagues.  A  policy  of  diffi- 
dence toward  all  things  western  was  entered  upon, 
from  which  the  eastern  leaders  would  not  swerve. 
Wise  was  regarded  as  a  rabbinical  upstart  who 
sought  to  establish  for  himself  a  position  of  su- 
premacy in  American  Jewish  life  to  which  neither 
his  learning  nor  his  past  achievements  had  en- 
titled him.  Jealousy  at  his  own  success  doubtless 
had  not  a  little  to  do  in  prejudicing  against  him 
those  Reform  leaders  who  should  have  been  the 
first  to  proffer  their  services  and  help.  Gradually 
Wise  was  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  the  West 
must  learn  to  get  along  without  the  East.  In 
condemning  the  pettiness  and  selfishness  of  east- 
ern Jewry  in  a  matter  which  imperatively  called 
for  a  union  of  forces,  he  writes:  "In  the  East 
Reform  is  an  object  per  se,  with  us  it  is  second- 
ary; we  want  reforms  in  order  to  endear  and  pre- 
serve our  religion,  therefore  we  ask  the  question, 
what  benefit  is  this  or  that  reform  to  our  sacred 
cause  ?  They  want  Reform  per  se,  and  ask  only  the 
question,  how  will  this  or  that  reform  be  liked? 
Here  is  a  difference  of  principles  of  which  prac- 
tical results  speak.  The  eastern  Reformers  are 
theoretical,  we  are  practical;  they  are  negative, 


264  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

we  are  positive;  they  consider  themselves  wiser 
and  more  learned  and  more  respectable  than  we 
are,  that  is,  the  bulk  of  the  people,  and  keep 
aloof;  we  are  democratic  in  our  religious  feel- 
ings. Nothing  can  be  more  desirable  than  a  union 
of  synagogues.  The  future  greatness  of  Judaism 
in  America  depends  upon  the  union  of  congrega- 
tions. We  must  be  united  in  form  of  worship  in 
order  to  have  no  element  of  discord  among  us.  .  . 
Hitherto  all  attempts  at  union  were  frustrated  by 
the  Reform  leaders  of  the  East." 

After  some  more  attempts  at  conciliation  last- 
ing for  a  number  of  years,  during  which  many 
conferences  were  held  in  various  cities,  all  of 
them  resulting  in  failure,  the  first  step  toward 
the  realization  of  the  rabbinical  seminary  plan 
was  taken  by  Henry  Adler,  a  merchant  of  In- 
diana, who  in  1870  donated  the  first  substantial 
gift  of  $10,000  toward  the  project.  With  this 
sum  as  a  basis,  Wise  with  greater  vigor  than 
ever  continued  his  advocacy  of  a  union  of  con- 
gregations. With  the  active  assistance  of  his  own 
congregation,  a  "General  Committee"  was  formed 
in  Cincinnati  on  March  30,  1873,  with  Julius  Frei- 
berg as  Chairman,  and  Lipman  Levy  as  Secretary, 
which,  on  May  18  of  that  year,  issued  a  call  to  all 
congregations  of  the  West  and  the  South  for  a 
convention  to  form  "a  Union  of  Congregations, 
under  whose  auspices  a  Jewish  Theological  Insti- 
tute shall  be  established,  and  other  measures 
adopted  which  will  advance  the  prosperity  of  our 
religion."  The  convention  took  place  in  Cincin- 
nati on  July  8,  1873,  with  representatives  from 
thirty-four  congregations,  who  at  once  proceeded 
to  organize  the  Union  of  American  Hebrew  Con- 
gregations for  the  avowed  .purpose,  as  they  rather 
crudely  put  it,  of  establishing  "a  Hebrew  Theo- 
logical College  to  preserve  Judaism  intact,  to  be- 


AMERICA  265 

queath  it  in  its  purity  and  sublimity  to  posterity, 
to  Israel  united  and  fraternized,  to  establish,  sus- 
tain and  govern  a  seat-of-learning  for  Israel's  re- 
legion  and  learning."  Two  years  later  the  semi- 
nary, under  the  name  of  "Hebrew  Union  College," 
was  opened  in  Cincinnati.  A  dream  of  more  than 
a  quarter  of  a  century  at  last  became  a  reality  in 
the  institution  which  was  to  become  the  most  im- 
portant factor  in  the  development  of  Reform 
Judaism  in  America. 

The  beginnings  of  the  College  were  very  small. 
Without  a  building  of  its  own,  it  met  in  the  ves- 
try rooms  of  Dr.  Lilienthal's  temple.  Of  the 
seventeen  young  men  who  enrolled  only  four 
clung  to  their  purpose  of  becoming  Jewish  min- 
isters, and  eight  years  later  were  ordained  as 
rabbis.  The  faculty  at  first  consisted  of  only  two 
professors,  Isaac  M.  Wise  and  Solomon  Eppinger, 
but  the  following  year  Lilienthal  joined  the  teach- 
ing force.  An  academic  college  education  was 
made  obligatory  upon  the  students.  Poor  as  was 
the  equipment  of  the  seminary  it  nevertheless  held 
on  to  its  ambitious  programme,  and  each  year 
saw  a  marked  growth  in  its  efficiency  and  in  the 
means  for  carrying  on  its  work.  It  has  since 
graduated  about  one  hundred  and  seventy  rabbis 
\vho  are  to-day  teaching  and  preaching  Judaism 
throughout  the  United  States,  in  Canada  and  in 
England.  To-day  the  Hebrew  Union  College  oc- 
cupies several  luxurious  buildings  in  one  of  the 
choicest  residential  sections  of  Cincinnati,  has  a 
great  library  stocked  with  more  than  forty  thou- 
sand volumes  and  precious  manuscripts,  and  among 
its  large  faculty,  headed  by  Dr.  Kaufman  Kohler, 
are  numbered  some  of  the  best  known  Jewish 
scholars  of  the  day. 

With  the  successful  founding  of  the  College  was 
made  possible  the  coming  true  of  another  fond 


266  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

hope  of  Wise,  that  of  seeing  a  united  American 
rabbinate.  The  successive  attempts  at  such  a 
union  made  by  him  and  Lilienthal  failed,  as  was 
inevitable,  owing  to  the  prevailing  suspicion  and 
jealousy  among  the  foreign-born  rabbis.  Coming 
from  different  schools,  and  not  finding  a  basis  of 
harmonious  co-operation,  it  was  difficult  for  them 
to  agree  upon  the  leadership  of  any  one  in  their 
midst,  and  the  idea  of  union  was  perforce  sacri- 
ficed to  self-interest.  But  once  the  College  began 
to  graduate  rabbis  the  problem  became  simple. 
All  Wise  needed  to  do  was  to  organize  his  own 
former  pupils,  now  the  occupants  of  prominent 
pulpits  and  steadily  gaining  in  power  and  influ- 
ence, into  a  rabbinical  conference.  The  other 
rabbis,  he  felt  certain,  would  then  join  the  organ- 
ization if  only  from  a  motive  of  self-protection. 
Accordingly,  in  1889,  six  years  after  the  first 
class  of  rabbis  was  graduated  from  the  Hebrew 
Union  College,  the  "Central  Conference  of  Amer- 
ican Rabbis"  was  organized  in  the  city  of  Detroit 
for  the  purpose  of  maintaining  and  perpetuating 
a  union  of  all  American  rabbis,  the  publishing  of 
a  year-book  of  its  proceedings  and  the  maintain- 
ing of  a  fund  for  the  support  of  superannuated  rab- 
bis. Ninety  rabbis  joined  the  Conference,  electing 
as  honorary  president  Dr.  Samuel  Adler  of  Temple 
Emanuel,  New  York,  then  the  only  living  Ameri- 
can rabbi  besides  Wise  who  attended  the  famous 
rabbinical  conferences  in  Germany  in  the  forties. 
Isaac  Mayer  Wise  was  chosen  the  first  president, 
and  he  continued  to  hold  this  office  until  his  death 
in  1900. 

While  the  Union,  the  College  and  the  rabbinical 
Conference  thus  became  the  representatives  and 
exponents  of  organized  Reform  Jewry  in  America, 
thus  testifying  to  the  insight  and  foresight,  the 
patience  and  perseverance  of  Dr.  Wise,  due  cog- 


AMERICA  267 

nizance  should  be  taken  of  the  many  other  con- 
tributory forces  that  have  helped  not  a  little  in 
the  moulding  of  this  new  growth  of  Jewish  re- 
ligious life.  Conditions  in  America  have  served 
to  place  Reform  if  not  exactly  as  a  necessity  then, 
at  least,  as  a  pleasant  and  welcome  phase  of  re- 
ligious life  and  thought  before  the  more  progres- 
sive Jews.  Reference  has  already  been  made  to 
the  "Reformed  Society  of  Israelites"  of  Charles- 
ton, S.  C,  which  as  early  as  1824  proclaimed  itself 
as  favoring  the  "making  of  such  alterations  in  the 
customs  and  ceremonies  of  the  Jewish  religion  as 
would  comport  with  the  present  enlightened  state 
of  the  World."  That  society  placed  itself  on 
record  as  subscribing  "to  nothing  of  rabbinical 
interpretation  or  rabbinical  doctrines."  The  mem- 
bers "are  their  own  teachers,  drawing  their  knowl- 
edge from  the  Bible  and  following  only  the  laws 
of  Moses,  and  those  only  as  far  as  they  can  be 
adapted  to  the  institutions  of  the  society  in  which 
they  live  and  enjoy  the  blessings  of  liberty.  They 
do  nothing  against  the  laws  of  Moses,  but  omit 
everything  belonging  to  the  former  independent 
condition  of  their  ancestors.  They  have  simplified 
the  worship  of  God  and  brought  the  great  objects 
of  public  meeting — piety,  morals  and  sense — so  as 
to  be  perfectly  comprehensible  to  the  understand- 
ing of  the  humblest  capacity."  Whatever  influ- 
ence the  Reform  agitation  in  Germany  may  have 
exercised  upon  the  Jews  of  Charleston,  it  is  cer- 
tain that  the  native  freedom  enjoyed  by  the  Jews 
of  the  city  in  religious  matters  was  a  deciding 
factor  in  the  realization  of  the  proposed  innova- 
tions. Due  to  the  same  cause  Reform  everywhere 
else  in  America  could  advance  with  far  greater 
ease  than  was  possible  for  it  in  Europe.  And  it 
was  this  very  promise  for  the  future  which  at- 
tracted to  the  United  States  a  select  band  of  Re- 


268  HISTORY    OF   THE    JEWS 

form  champions  from  Germany  who  crossed  the 
seas  in  quest  of  the  freedom  denied  them  in  their 
native  land.  Not  all  of  the  same  mind  on  ques- 
tions of  doctrine  and  observance,  they  neverthe- 
less were  in  agreement  on  a  number  of  essentials. 
By  the  sheer  accident  of  the  location  of  the  largest 
number  of  Jews,  they  were  all  to  be  found  in  the 
great  Eastern  centres,  as  the  heads  of  large  and 
important  congregations^  \vhich  circumstance, 
added  to  the  prevailing  prejudice  they  found 
among  their  congregants  against  all  plans  and  ac- 
tivities emanating  from  Cincinnati,  helped  not  a 
little  in  the  shaping  of  their  views.  They  came 
to  America  after  having  won  their  spurs  in 
Europe,  men  of  acknowledged  ability  and  superior 
learning,  distinguished  authors  and  forceful 
preachers,  who  had  played  no  mean  part  in  the 
Reform  movement  in  Germany  and  in  the  noted 
Reform  conferences  of  Braunschweig,  Frankfort 
and  Breslau.  Adorned  with  academic  laurels 
obtained  in  some  of  Germany's  best  known  univer- 
sities, and  friends  and  co-laborers  of  Geiger  and 
Holdheim,  it  was  natural  that  they  should  enter- 
tain a  none-too-exalted  opinion  of  whatever  intel- 
lectual and  spiritual  forces  America  then  con- 
tained. Wise  was  to  them  a  rabbinical  free-lance 
and  interloper,  unworthy  of  the  good  luck  which 
attended  his  efforts,  and  their  common  antipathy 
caused  them  to  solidly  array  themselves  against 
him  and  do  all  they  could  to  thwart  his  plans. 
Wise  survived  them  all,  and  at  the  close  of  his 
long  life  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  the  stub- 
born and  recalcitrant  East  pay  homage  to  his 
greatness  and  acknowledge  the  true  merits  of  his 
unselfish  labors.  Yet  the  opposition  of  those  noted 
eastern  leaders  had  a  powerful  effect  upon  the 
course  of  American  Reform:  if  it  interfered  with 
its  growth  in  the  East,  it  caused  it  to  grow  all  the 


AMERICA  269 

stronger  wherever  its  hindering  influence  could 
not  reach  it.  It  resulted  in  the  East  becoming  and 
remaining  the  stronghold  of  conservatism  and,  as 
such,  the  favored  field  of  the  Counter-Reforma- 
tion which  was  to  come  after  many  years.  Upon 
\Yise,  too,  it  may  have  exercised  a  restraining 
influence  unknown,  perhaps,  to  himself. 

The  most  forceful  and  dauntless  of  these  east- 
ern leaders  was  David  Einhorn  (Dispeck,  Ba- 
varia, iSog-New  York,  1879),  a  Reformer  by  the 
grace  of  God  who,  prior  to  his  coming  to  Amer- 
ica, had  already  established  a  reputation  as  an  ex- 
treme liberal  in  the  congregations  he  had  served, 
and  whose  reform  views  often  exposed  him  to  the 
hatred  of  the  forces  of  conservatism,  resulting,  in 
the  end,  in  the  closing  by  the  Austrian  govern- 
ment of  his  Reform  temple  in  Budapest  (1852), 
as  we  have  already  had  occasion  to  relate  in  a  pre- 
ceding chapter.  Einhorn  attempted  to  do  in 
Europe  what  the  most  outspoken  Reformers  for 
many  years  hesitated  to  do  in  America,  namely, 
conducting  a  divine  service  on  Sunday,  and  wor- 
shipping with  uncovered  head  to  the  accompany- 
ing strains  of  the  organ.  A  preacher — as  Dr. 
Kohler  characterizes  him — of  "the  fire  of  an 
Elijah  and  the  tongue  of  an  Isaiah,"  he  had  the 
advantage  of  profound  rabbinical  scholarship 
which  he  used  with  great  skill  and  force  in  sup- 
port of  his  ideas.  Assuming  an  attitude  of  rever- 
ence and  affection  for  the  Talmud  and  its  lead- 
ing spirits,  he  regarded  the  ceremonial  laws  of 
Moses  as  only  of  a  symbolic  character.  So,  too, 
were  to  him  the  miracles  of  the  Bible,  to  be  re- 
garded only  in  the  light  of  ethical  allegories.  The 
sacrificial  cult  was  a  beautiful  symbol  which,  how- 
ever, was  not  essential  to  human  salvation.  Man, 
he  tells  us,  is  the  child  of  God  in  the  spirit,  and 
as  such  is  capable  of  holiness,  which  is  his  natural 


270  HISTORY   OF    THE    JEWS 

state,  by  repentance  and  contrition  without  resort 
to  ritualistic  performance.  The  function  of  re- 
ligion is  to  establish  man  in  his  full  stature  as 
the  child  of  God,  and  all  undue  ceremonialism  de- 
tracts from,  rather  than  adds  to,  the  real  purport 
of  worship.  So  uncompromising  a  spirit  as  his 
could  not  very  readily  find  itself  in  agreement 
with  a  Reform  policy  which  employed  patience 
and  gradual  evolution  as  its  chief  instruments. 
When  Einhorn  arrived  in  Baltimore  in  1855  as 
the  rabbi  of  Har  Sinai  Temple  he  scanned  the 
forces  of  liberalism  in  America  and  found  them 
too  temporizing  and  conciliatory.  To  go  with 
them  would  be  to  vitiate  the  exalted  platform  he 
had  erected.  The  call  of  battle  came  shortly  after 
his  installation  as  rabbi  when  news  reached  him 
of  the  declaration  of  principles  adopted  at  the  rab- 
binical conference  then  being  held  in  Cleveland 
which,  as  already  stated,  declared  the  Bible  to 
be  of  immediate  divine  origin  and  the  Talmud  to 
contain  "the  traditional,  legal  and  logical  exposi- 
tion of  the  Biblical  laws,  which  must  be  expounded 
and  practiced  according  to  the  comments  of  the 
Talmud."  Einhorn  saw  in  this  declaration  a  sign 
of  reaction,  and  he  at  once  proceeded  to  attack 
it  with  all  his  accustomed  vigor  and  zeal,  first  in 
a  circular  letter  and  later  in  a  more  elaborate 
article  in  his  German  monthly  "Sinai."  Isaac 
Mayer  Wise  retorted  in  the  "American  Israelite" 
of  the  following  week,,  where  he  calls  Einhorn  an 
enemy  of  Jews  and  of  Judaism.  The  eastern  Re- 
formers, headed  by  Temple  Emanu-El  of  New 
York,  whose  rabbi,  Dr.  Merzbacher,  was  himself  a 
participant  in  the  Cleveland  conference,  soon  ar- 
rayed themselves  on  the  side  of  Einhorn,  as  a  re- 
sult of  which  the  breach  between  the  East  and 
West  became  wider  than  before. 

If  Wise  was  the  more  practical,  Einhorn  was 


DAVID  EINHORN 
(1809-1879) 


AMERICA  271 

the  more  forceful  agitator  of  Reform,  and  the 
two  served  as  a  check  upon  each  other.  In  later 
years  Wise  indorsed  the  principles  of  Einhorn 
which  became  the  leading  ideas  of  the  young  rab- 
bis whom  the  Hebrew  Union  College  had  begun  to 
send  out.  Einhorn's  constructive  work  in  Amer- 
ican Reform  is  seen  in  his  "Olat  Tamid,"  the 
prayer  book  for  Reform  congregations  which  he 
prepared  in  the  German  language  and  which  later 
was  rendered  into  English  by  his  son-in-law,  Dr. 
E.  G.  Hirsch  of  Chicago.  This  was  in  its  day 
the  leading  prayer  book  for  the  more  prominent 
eastern  congregations,  and  is  still  used  by  Temple 
Sinai  of  Chicago.  Many  of  its  prayers  were 
later  on  embodied  in  the  Union  Prayer  Book  which 
is  to-day  the  ritual  in  use  by  the  majority  of  Amer- 
ican Reform  congregations. 

A  man  of  less  aggressiveness  but  of  superior 
scholarly  attainments  was  Dr.  Samuel  Hirsch 
(Thalfang,  Rhenish-Prussia,  i8i5-Chicago,  1889), 
who  before  coming  to  America  was  for  twenty- 
three  years  Chief  Rabbi  of  the  Grand  Duchy  of 
Luxembourg,  and  whose  work,  "Religionphiloso- 
phie  der  Juden,"  besides  other  notable  writings,  se- 
cured for  him  an  enviable  reputation  as  a  profound 
thinker,  who  successfully  built  up  a  Jewish  the- 
ology along  the  lines  of  the  Hegelian  philosophical 
system.  Hirsch  came  to  America  in  1866,  where 
he  succeeded  David  Einhorn  as  rabbi  of  the  Kene- 
seth  Israel  congregation  of  Philadelphia.  With 
Einhorn,  Hirsch  from  the  very  first  placed  him- 
self on  a  platform  of  uncompromising  radicalism, 
and  headed  the  forces  of  antagonism  against  Wise 
and  Lilienthal.  To  them  was  joined  Samuel  Ad- 
ler  (Worms,  iSoQ-New  York,  1891),  the  noted 
rabbi  of  Temple  Emanu-El  of  New  York,  a 
gentle  and  refined  spirit,  and  a  quiet  student  and 
scholar.  Not  as  aggressive  as  his  two  famous 


272  HISTORY  OF  THE  JEWS   . 

colleagues,  he  upheld  the  honor  and  dignity  of  Re- 
form by  his  personal  life,  his  erudite  discourses 
and  his  interest  in  the  moral  and  economic  prob- 
lems of  the  general  community.  A  founder  of 
the  New  York  Hebrew  Orphan  Asylum,  Adler 
exercised  a  potent  influence  for  good  in  the  large 
and  steadily  growing  Jewry  of  America's  greatest 
city,  and  his  thirty-four  years'  connection  with 
Temple  Emanu-El  is  among  the  most  cherished 
traditions  of  that  prominent  congregation. 

To  these  men  of  light  and  leading  who  made 
the  second  half  of  the  nineteenth  century  a 
memorable  one  in  the  life  of  American  Israel 
should  be  added  the  names  of  Bernard  Felsenthal 
(Muenchweiler,  i822-Chicago,  1908),  Liebman 
Adler  (Lengsfeld,  Saxe-Weimar,  i8i2-Chicago, 
1892),  Marcus  Jastrow  (Rogasen,  Poland,  1829- 
Philadelphia,  1903),  the  noted  scholar  and  com- 
piler of  the  well-known  Talmudical  dictionary, 
Benjamin  Szold  (Nemiskert,  Hungary,  1829- 
Berkeley  Springs,  W.  Va.,  1902),  the  renowned 
rabbi  of  Baltimore  and  author  of  a  fine  com- 
mentary on  the  Book  of  Job,  Adolph  Huebsch 
(Lipto-Szent-Miklos,  i83O-New  York,  1884),  El- 
kan  Cohn  of  San  Francisco,  James  K.  Gutheim 
and  Isidore  Leucht  of  New  Orleans,  Gustav  Gott- 
heil  (Pinne,  Prussian-Posen,  i827-New.  York, 
I9°3)>  and  the  two  sons-in-law  of  David  Einhorn, 
Emil  G.  Hirsch  (b.  Luxembourg,  1852),  still  the 
foremost  Reform  rabbi  and  preacher  in  America, 
and  Kaufman  Kohler  (b.  Fuerth,  Bavaria,  1843), 
once  the  opponent  of  Wise  and  now  his  successor 
as  president  of  the  Hebrew  Union  College.  With 
all  the  disagreements  which  every  now  and  then 
arose  among  them,  often  dividing  them  into  hos- 
tile camps,  these  men  were  a  unit  in  their  deep- 
seated  concern  for  the  moral  and  spiritual  welfare 
of  their  people  which  alone  must  be  said  to  have 


AMERICA  273 

been  the  chief  cause  of  whatever  intolerance  they 
bore  to  each  other. 

If  Germany  was  the  land  to  give  to  America  its 
great  Reform  leaders,  she  did  no  less  for  Amer- 
ican Orthodoxy,  at  least,  in  so  far  as  she  fur- 
nished American  Jewry  with  its  foremost  ortho- 
dox leader  in  the  nineteenth  century,  the  above- 
mentioned  Reverend  Isaac  Leeser  (Neuenkirchen, 
Prussia,  1806- Philadelphia,  1868).  Largely  an 
autodidact,  and  coming  to  the  United  States  at  the 
age  of  seventeen,  Leeser  at  first  launched  out 
upon  a  business  career  in  Richmond,  Va.  His  in- 
terest in  Jewish  learning  and  his  love  for  Juda- 
ism, however,  soon  led  to  his  identification  with 
the  religious  work  of  his  community  and  after 
teaching  for  several  years  in  the  religious  school 
he  became  assistant  to  the  minister  of  the  Rich- 
mond congregation,  Reverend  Isaac  B.  Seixas. 
In  1829  he  was  called  to  Philadelphia  as  minister 
of  the  Portuguese  congregation  Mikveh  Israel, 
bringing  with  him  the  manuscript  of  his  book  on 
"The  Jews  and  the  Mosaic  Law."  It  was  his  first 
attempt  as  an  author,  though  he  had  already  ap- 
peared in  print  as  a  contributor  on  Jewish  topics 
to  the  "Richmond  Whig."  Philadelphia  opened 
up  for  Leeser  a  field  of  activity  commensurate 
with  his  abilities  and  his  ambitious  plans  for  the 
upbuilding  of  Judaism  in  America.  Of  a  scholar- 
ly turn  of  mind,  a  facile  writer  and  an  indus- 
trious worker,  Leeser  ere  long  came  to  occupy  a 
dominant  position  in  American  Jewish  life.  He 
was  the  first  Jewish  minister  in  America  to  intro- 
duce the  regular  weekly  sermon  on  the  Sabbath 
in  English — at  first  much  against  the  wishes  of 
his  congregation.  He  also  became  the  first  Amer- 
ican Jewish  publisher,  in  1830,  beginning  with 
Johlson's  "Instruction  in  the  Mosaic  Religion," 
which  he  translated,  and  following  it  up  with  a 


274  HISTORY    OF   THE    JEWS 

number  of  volumes  of  sermons,  text-books  of  He- 
brew and  of  Judaism,  prayer-books,  several  of 
Grace  Aguilar's  writings,  etc.  He  is  probably  best 
remembered  for  his  translation  of  the  Bible,  though 
his  greatest  service  to  the  cause  of  his  people  and 
their  faith  was  rendered  in  the  monthly  (later  a 
weekly)  "Occident,"  which  he  established  in  1843, 
thus  becoming  the  father  of  Jewish  religious  jour- 
nalism in  the  United  States.  His  was  a  progres- 
sive Orthodoxy,  though  he  was  uncompromising 
on  what"  he  considered  essential  matters.  He  at 
first  encouraged  Dr.  Wise  in  his  plans,  opening 
wide  to  him  the  columns  of  his  paper,  and  there 
is  little  doubt  but  that  he  furnished  the  latter  with 
many  of  the  ideas  and  plans  which  Wise  later  car- 
ried out  in  his  career  as  a  Reformer.  Many  of 
the  prominent  Jewish  institutions  of  Philadelphia 
owe  their  existence  to  his  efforts,  as  did  also  some 
of  the  national  Jewish  organizations  of  America 
in  his  day,  notably  the  "Board  of  Delegates  of 
American  Israelites"  and  the  first  "American 
Jewish  Publication  Society." 

By  the  time  Leeser  and  Wise  were  at  the  height 
of  their  activity  and  prestige  as  religious  leaders 
in  American  Israel,  the  Jews  of  the  United  States 
had  attained  a  more  prominent  place  in  the  eco- 
nomic and  political  life  of  the  nation,  warranted 
by  their  steadily  growing  numbers  and  wealth. 
When  in  1840  the  infamous  Damascus  affair  oc- 
curred, when  the  charge  of  ritual-murder  was 
launched  against  the  Jews  of  that  city,  resulting 
in  the  imprisonment  and  torture  of  thirteen  Jews, 
American  Israel,  in  common  with  their  brethren 
in  Europe,  took  steps  to  enlist  the  sympathy  and 
intervention  of  their  government  in  behalf  of  the 
unfortunates.  Meetings  of  protest  were  held  in 
New  York,  in  Philadelphia,  where  Isaac  Leeser 
was  the  chief  spokesman  for  the  Jews  at  a  gath- 


AMERICA  275 

ering  participated  in  by  many  Gentiles,  and  in 
Richmond,  though  President  Van  Buren  and  his 
Secretary  of  State  John  Forsyth  had  already  an- 
ticipated their  action  by  instructing  John  Gliddon, 
United  States  Consul  at  Alexandria,  Egypt,  "to 
employ,  should  the  occasion  arise,  all  those  good 
offices  and  efforts  which  are  compatible  with  dis- 
cretion and  your  official  character,  to  the  end  that 
justice  and  humanity  may  be  extended  to  these 
persecuted  people,  whose  cry  of  distress  has 
reached  our  shores."  This  action  showed  that  the 
American  republic  had  begun  to  emerge  from  its 
provincialism  and  self-imposed  exclusiveness  and 
to  enter  upon  a  policy  of  participation  in  world- 
affairs  even  where  its  own  interests  were  not  di- 
rectly affected.  It  was  illustrated  in  an  even  more 
emphatic  manner  in  the  matter  of  the  disabilities 
of  the  Jews  in  the  Swiss  Confederation,  which  in- 
volved a  violation  of  the  treaty  rights  of  Amer- 
ican Jews  travelling  in  that  country,  as  was  al- 
ready dwelt  on  in  the  first  chapter  of  this  work 
in  connection  with  the  story  of  the  Jews  of 
Switzerland.  Even  when  they  were  but  few  in 
number  their  position  in  the  general  community 
had  been  one  of  importance.  In  the  war  of  1812, 
as  in  the  Revolutionary  War,  the  Jews,  despite 
their  small  number,  took  a  most  prominent  part, 
giving  at  least  thirteen  officers  to  the  nation's 
cause,  among  them  one  colonel  and  two  captains. 
The  State  of  Maryland  which  long  held  out 
against  the  advancing  liberalism  of  the  times  in 
withholding  equal  rights  from  the  Jews,  finally 
fell  in  line  with  the  rest  of  the  states  by  adopt- 
ing (February  26,  1825)  an  act  "for  the  relief 
of  the  Jews  of  Maryland."  In  the  Mexican  War 
(1846-47),  which  has  ever  been  looked  at  askance 
by  all  justice-loving  Americans  as  an  unwarranted 
and  unjustified  attack  upon  a  small  and  weak  state 


276  HISTORY   OF    THE    JEWS 

by  the  now  powerful  republic,  the  Jews  shared  in 
the  general  unpopularity  of  the  contest  and  did 
not  enlist  in  large  numbers,  though  even  here 
some  of  them  served  with  great  distinction, 
notably,  Lieutenant-Colonel  Israel  Moses,  and 
Major  David  C.  de  Leon,  of  South  Carolina,  the 
hero  of  Chapultepec,  who  twice  received  the 
thanks  of  the  American  Congress  for  his  bravery. 
It  was,  however,  during  the  Civil  War  (1861-65) 
that  the  Jews,  by  this  time  grown  to  a  commun- 
ity of  about  150,000  souls,  rendered  invaluable 
services  in  the  Union  as  well  as  the  Confederate 
armies,  both  as  privates  and  officers. 

In  this  most  memorable  struggle  for  human 
liberty  it  was  only  natural  that  the  Jews,  like 
their  Christian  fellow-citizens,  should  be  a  house 
divided  against  itself  on  the  question  of  slavery. 
Many  Jews  living  in  the  Southern  States  were 
owners  of  plantations,  who  had  grown  wealthy 
by  means  of  the  labor  of  their  negro  slaves.  The 
best  that  can  be  said  about  the  slave-owning  Jews 
is  that,  probably  owing  to  the  natural  tenderness 
which  has  ever  been  a  marked  characteristic  of 
the  race,  they  treated  their  slaves  with  greater 
consideration  than  did  the  non-Jews,  as  was  in- 
stanced in  the  case  of  Judah  Touro,  the  distin- 
guished merchant  and  philanthropist,  who  treated 
the  only  negro  he  owned  with  the  utmost  kindness, 
trained  him  for  a  business  career  and  eventually 
gave  him  his  freedom.  In  principle  many  Southern 
Jews  were  stanch  believers  in  the  slavery  institu- 
tion, and  even  among  the  Jews  north  of  the  Mason 
and  Dixon  line  could  be  found  a  number  of  sym- 
pathizers with  the  Southern  planters.  A  New 
York  rabbi,  very  prominent  in  his  day,  the  Rev- 
erend Morris  J.  Raphall,  even  preached  in  behalf 
of  slavery  from  his  pulpit  (1860),  basing  his 
arguments  upon  the  authority  of  the  Bible,  in  this 


AMERICA  277 

being  upheld  by  no  less  a  man  than  Isaac  Leeser. 
It  is  also  known  that  Dr.  Isaac  M.  Wise  was  not 
enthusiastic  about  the  war  and  until  the  outbreak 
of  hostilities  hoped  and  labored  for  a  compromise 
between  the  contending  factions.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  majority  of  Jews  then,  as  now,  lived  in 
the  Eastern  and  Northern  States  and  from  them 
came  the  greatest  champions  of  the  anti-slavery 
cause.  Rabbis  like  Sabato  Morais  of  Philadelphia 
and  Liebman  Adler  of  Chicago  were  tireless  in 
behalf  of  the  emancipation  movement,  while  Dr. 
David  Einhorn  was  compelled  to  leave  Baltimore 
on  account  of  the  resentment  his  fiery  denuncia- 
tions of  slavery  had  aroused.  Active  in  this 
propaganda  which  led  to  the  war  was  also  Michael 
Heilprin,  who  effectively  answered  Raphall  in 
the  New  York  Tribune,  and  of  whom  more  will  be 
told  here  later  in  connection  with  his  work  in  be- 
half of  the  Russian  Jewish  immigrants.  In  the  Na- 
tional Republican  Convention  which  nominated 
Abraham  Lincoln  for  the  Presidency  (Chicago, 
May,  1860),  there  were  three  Jews,  Sigismund 
Kaufman  of  New  York,  Moritz  Pinner  of  Mis- 
souri, and  Lewis  Naphtali  Dembitz  (Zirke,  Posen, 
i833-Louisville,  Ky.,  1907),  who  later  won  fame 
as  a  lawyer  and  Jewish  scholar  and  author.  Lin- 
coln counted  numerous  personal  friends  among 
the  Jews.  When  he  left  for  Washington  in  1861 
to  take  the  oath  of  office,  a  Jew  by  the  name  of 
Abraham  Kohn,  who  was  City  Clerk  of  Chicago, 
presented  him  with  a  silk  flag  upon  which  were 
embroidered  in  black  letters  the  third  and  ninth 
verses  of  Joshua  i :  "Have  I  not  commanded 
thee?  Be  strong  and  of  good  courage;  be  not 
afraid  neither  be  thou  dismayed;  for  the  Lord 
thy  God  is  with  thee  withersoever  thou  goest." 

The  war  which  broke  out  with  the  firing  on 
Fort   Sumter   saw   many   thousands   of  Jews   on 


2/8  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

both  sides  rush  to  the  colors,  the  number  of  these 
volunteers  being  from  fifteen  to  twenty  thousand, 
it  being  impossible  to  ascertain  the  exact  figures 
owing  to  the  circumstance  that  no  record  as  to 
the  religion  of  the  soldiers  was  kept  by  either 
side.  It  is  only  of  the  Jewish  officers  that  any- 
thing is  known  with  relative  certainty,  and  of 
these  there  was  a  considerable  number,  twenty- 
three  of  them  serving  as  staff  officers  in  the  Con- 
federate army,  and  about  a  dozen  in  the  Con- 
federate navy,  Captain  Levy  M.  Harby,  being  in 
command  of  the  harbor  of  Galveston  at  the  time 
the  war  was  drawing  to  a  close.  But  is  was  not 
alone  .on  the  battlefield  that  Southern  Jews  dis- 
tinguished themselves.  High  in  the  government 
of  the  rebel  republic,  and  as  the  right  hand  of 
President  Jefferson  Davis,  sat  a  Jew  to  whom  was 
attributed  the  distinction  of  being  "the  brains  of 
the  Confederacy,"  Judah  Philip  Benjamin  (St. 
Croix,  West  Indies,  i8n-Paris,  1884).  A  son  of 
English  Jewish  immigrants  who,  after  a  brief  so- 
journ in  the  West  Indies,  settled  in  Charleston, 
S.  C.  Benjamin  started  life  under  adverse  cir- 
cumstances. Unable  to  finish  his  studies  at  Yale, 
he,  in  1828,  came  to  New  Orleans,  where  he 
studied  law  as  a  notary's  clerk,  being  admitted  to 
the  Louisiana  bar  in  1832.  His  success  as  a  law- 
yer was  rapid  and  phenomenal.  Possessed  of  an 
unusually  grasping  mind  and  retentive  memory,  his 
rise  to  prominence  was  due  also,  in  the  words  of 
a  London  Times  article  on  the  occasion  of  his 
death,  "to  the  inheritance  of  that  elastic  resist- 
ance to  evil  fortune  which  preserved  Mr. 
Benjamin's  ancestors  through  a  succession  of 
exiles  and  plundering,  and  reappeared  in  the  Min- 
ister of  the  Confederate  Cause,  together  with  the 
same  refined  apprehension  of  logical  problems 
which  informed  the  subtleties  of  the  Talmud." 


JUDAH     PHILIP     LiENJAMIN 
(I8II-I884} 


AMERICA  279 

Coming  to  a  State  which  had  but  a  few  years 
before  been  made  part  of  the  Union,  he  found 
Louisiana  an  uncultivated  field  awaiting-  the  un- 
tangling of"  the  many  legal  problems  that  arose 
through  the  passing  of  this  Spanish-French  colony 
under  United  States  control.  Circumstances  thus 
favored  his  becoming  a  pioneer  in  the  definition 
of  Louisiana's  laws.  He  first  gained  prominence 
as  the  author  of  a  "Digest  of  the  Reported  Pro- 
ceedings of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  Late  Ter- 
ritory of  Orleans  and  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
Louisiana" — the  first  legal  summary  of  its  kind 
(1834).  His  wealth  grew  with  his  fame  and  soon 
he  found  himself  rich  enough  to  abandon  the 
law  and  acquire  a  sugar  plantation  near  New  Or- 
leans, where  he  gave  himself  to  the  pursuit  of 
scientific  experiments  of  the  best  methods  of  ex- 
tracting saccharine  from  the  sugar-cane.  He 
never,  however,  lost  sight  of  the  politics  of  his 
State  and  of  the  country.  A  member  of  the 
Louisiana  Constitutional  Conventions  of  1844  and 
1852  and  a  Presidential  elector  in  1849,  he  became 
a  prominent  leader  in  the  then  existing  Whig 
party.  The  loss  of  his  fortune  through  the  inun- 
dation of  his  plantation  caused  him  to  return  to 
the  practice  of  law  and  he  soon  became  the  fore- 
most Southern  lawyer  of  his  day.  He  rejected 
the  offer  of  President  Pierce  to  become  an  Asso- 
ciate Justice  of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court, 
but  accepted  the  nomination  for  United  States 
Senator  from  his  State  in  1852,  being  re-elected 
to  that  office  in  1858.  To  him,  among  others, 
Buchanan  owed  his  nomination  and  election  to 
the  Presidency  of  the  United  States  (1856).  As 
an  orator,  Benjamin  was  regarded  as  a  worthy 
successor  to  Daniel  Webster  whom,  however,  he 
surpassed  in  many  ways. 

This  was  the  man  whom  Jefferson  Davis  now 


280  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

invited  to  help  him  in  the  government  of  the  new 
Southern  republic  and  in  the  conduct  of  the  war. 
As  such  the  President  could  not  have  chosen  a 
more  loyal,  as  he  could  not  have  found  a  more 
able  lieutenant.  Benjamin  was  almost  fanatical 
in  his  Southern  patriotism  which  many  years  be- 
fore the  war  even  caused  him  to  oppose  the  grant- 
ing of  suffrage  in  Louisiana  not  only  to  foreign- 
ers but  even  to  native  Northerners  whom  he  re- 
garded as  inimical  to  Southern  interests.  His 
views  on  the  right  of  a  State  to  secede  from  the 
Union  he  boldly  made  known  as  early  as  1856,  in 
his  first  great  speech  in  the  Senate  on  the  Kansas 
Bill.  He  began  his  work  in  the  Davis  Cabinet 
as  Attorney-General  but  soon  was  entrusted  also 
with  the  portfolio  of  Secretary  of  War  when  he 
planned  and  schemed  many  of  the  operations  on 
the  battlefield,  and  later  was  promoted  to  the 
highest  place  in  the  Cabinet,  that  of  Secretary  of 
State.  In  this  office  he  remained  "until  the  bitter 
end  sanguine  and  serene  in  bearing,  through  all 
mutations  of  fortune  and  misfortune."  Upon  his 
shoulders  fell  the  onus  of  safeguarding  and 
strengthening  the  Confederacy  by  means  of 
diplomacy,  by  securing  the  recognition,  assistance 
and  intervention  of  foreign  powers.  In  this  he 
succeeded  but  little,  and  his  enemies  were  not 
slow  in  placing  upon  him  the  burden  of  the  dip- 
lomatic failures  of  the  Confederacy,  even  as  dur- 
ing his  tenure  of  office  as  Secretary  of  War  they 
blamed  him,  without  the  least  justification,  for  the 
failures  of  the  armies  in  the  field.  His  Jewish 
origin  was  repeatedly  attacked,  and  his  personal 
integrity  assailed.  Benjamin,  unperturbed  by  it 
all,  retained  his  poise  and  calm,  and  never  for  a 
moment  lost  the  confidence  of  the  President  who, 
more  than  upon  any  other  member  of  his  official 
family,  leaned  upon  him  in  all  of  the  weightiest 


AMERICA  28l 

of  problems.  The  cause  of  the  rebellion  was, 
however,  doomed  to  failure;  Richmond  fell  early 
in  April,  1865,  blasting  whatever  hopes  the  lead- 
ers of  the  Confederacy  were  still  nursing,  and 
both  Jefferson  Davis  and  his  Prime  Minister  were 
compelled  to  flee  for  their  safety.  Benjamin, 
after  a  perilous  and  adventuresome  journey,  fi- 
nally reached  England  (July  22,  1865).  Not  in 
the  least  discouraged  by  his  impecunious  condi- 
tion and  his  advancing  age,  he  commenced  the 
study  of  English  law  at  Lincoln's  Inn,  and  within 
a  few  months  was  admitted  to  the  bar,  he  having 
meanwhile  become  a  naturalized  English  subject. 
Again  the  genius  of  the  man  as  a  lawyer  revealed 
itself  in  a  short  time  and  Benjamin  soon  ranked 
as  the  leading  barrister  of  England.  Here,  too, 
he  blazed  a  new  path  in  the  history  and  literature 
of  British  law  by  publishing,  in  1868,  his  book 
on  "The  Law  of  Sale  of  Personal  Property,"  which 
immediately  established  the  fame  and  success  of 
its  author.  Attaining  the  rank  of  Queen's  Coun- 
sel, and  amassing  a  vast  fortune,  Benjamin,  in 
1883,  withdrew  from  all  public  and  legal  work 
and  retired  to  Paris  there  to  find  the  following 
year  a  grave  in  the  Catholic  Cemetery,  though  he 
had  never  publicly  abjured  Judaism.  With  him 
passed  away  the  glory  and  the  strength  of  the 
ill-fated  revolution  in  the  Southland  he  had  so 
truly  and  deeply  loved. 

On  the  Union  side  there  were  no  Jews  in  high 
office  in  the  Washington  government,  but,  in  the 
nature  of  things,  there  were  more  Jews  serving 
in  the  ranks  than  was  the  case  in  the  South,  and 
the  number  of  Jewish  officers  was  also  much 
larger.  Some  of  these  were  officers  of  high  rank, 
such  as  Leopold  Blumenberg  of  Baltimore,  a  vet- 
eran of  the  Prussian-Danish  War  (1848-49),  who 


282  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

was  severely  wounded  at  Antietam,  where  he 
served  as  colonel,  and  was  later  made  Provost- 
Marshal  of  the  third  Maryland  district;  Philip  J. 
Joachimsen,  who  was  brevetted  a  Brigadier-Gen- 
eral, after  being  injured  at  New  Orleans;  Fred- 
erick Knefler,  who  distinguished  himself  at 
Chickamauga  and  was  made  Brevet  Major-Gen- 
eral, besides  many  others  who  were  generals  and 
colonels  of  various  ranks.  It  is  not  known  how 
large  was  the  number  of  Jews  serving  in  the 
navy,  and  still  less  do  we  know  about  Jewish 
naval  officers.  Uriah  Phillips  Levy  (Philadelphia, 
i7Q2-New  York,  1862),  the  man  who  abolished 
the  barbarous  practice  of  corporal  punishment  in 
the  United  States  Navy,  was  the  only  Jew  to  at- 
tain the  highest  rank  in  the  American  Navy  up  to 
that  time,  that  of  Commodore,  but  he  was  too  old 
to  render  any  effective  service  in  the  Civil  War. 
He  died  a  year  after  the  outbreak  of  hostilities 
after  a  life  spent  nearly  all  in  the  service  of  a 
country  which  recognized  his  great  merits  and 
was  unstinting  in  the  honors  it  bestowed  on  him. 
The  one  regrettable  incident  of  the  war  in 
which  Jews  were  greatly  concerned  was  the  now 
historic  order  of  General  Ulysses  S.  Grant  for 
the  expulsion,  within  twenty-four  hours,  of  all 
Jews  from  the  country  occupied  by  his  troops. 
Grant,  who  was  then  Department  Commander, 
with  headquarters  at  Oxford,  Mississippi,  was 
annoyed  by  the  mercantile  activity  of  the  Jews 
within  his  territory,  and  probably  was  influenced 
by  slanderous  rumors  that  had  been  circulated 
about  them.  The  order,  issued  on  December  17, 
1862,  and  known  as  "General  Order  No.  u,"  con- 
tained as  a  reason  the  alleged  misconduct  of  the 
Jews  who  were  "violating  every  regulation  of 
trade  established  by  the  Treasury  Department, 
also  department  orders."  President  Lincoln  was 


AMERICA  283 

quick  to  respond  to  the  protests  of  a  number  of 
leading  Jews  and  caused  the  order  to  be  rescinded. 
To  Drs.  Wise  and  Lilienthal,  who,  with  other 
representative  Jews,  went  to  Washington  to  in- 
tercede with  the  President,  Lincoln  stated  that 
Grant's  order  was  a  ridiculous  one,  and  that  "to 
condemn  a  class  is,  to  say  the  least,  to  wrong  the 
good  with  the  bad."  General  Grant  himself  re- 
gretted the  course  he  had  pursued,  and  when,  in 
1868,  he  was  spoken  of  as  a  probable  candidate 
for  the  Presidency,  he  was  anxious  to  secure  the 
favorable  opinion  and  goodwill  of  the  Jews,  and 
in  a  letter  to  J.  N.  Morris,  dated  September  14  of 
that  year,  he  explains  the  reason  for  that  order: 
"At  the  time  of  its  publication  I  was  incensed 
by  a  reprimand  received  from  Washington  for 
permitting  acts  which  Jews  within  my  lines  were 
engaged  in.  ...  This  order  was  issued  and 
sent  out  without  thinking  of  the  Jews  as  a  sect  or 
a  race  to  themselves.  ...  It  never  would 
have  been  issued  if  it  had  not  been  telegraphed 
the  moment  it  was  penned  and  without  reflec- 
tion." 

German  Jews  were  now  in  the  ascendant  in  the 
United  States  in  every  phase  of  life,  superseding 
their  brethren  of  Spanish-Portuguese  origin  and, 
with  the  increase  of  their  numbers  and  wealth, 
steadily  gaining  in  prestige  and  influence  in  every 
community  where  they  were  to  be  found  in  suffi- 
ciently large  numbers.  Aside  from  his  Reform 
leanings  the  German  Jew  brought  with  him  also 
a  genius  for  organization  which  served  him  in 
good  stead  during  the  early  days  of  his  settle- 
ment when  his  communal  life  in  America  was  first 
being  created.  The  American  Jewish  fraternal 
order  is  a  creation  of  the  German  Jew.  As  far 
back  as  1843  a  body  of  these  Jews  in  New  York, 
headed  by  Henry  Jones,  banded  together  and  or- 


284  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

ganized  the  "B'nai  B'rith"  (Sons  of  the  Cove- 
nant), the  first  and  still  the  foremost  Jewish  fra- 
ternal organization  in  the  world  which  antedated 
by  many  years  the  Alliance  Israelite  and  similar 
oranizations.  It  grew  slowly  at  first,  even  in  1857 
having  less  than  three  thousand  members.  But 
ten  years  later  it  boasted  of  a  membership  of 
twenty  thousand,  with  several  grand  lodges,  and 
in  1873  the  Order  had  lodges  in  nearly  every 
community  of  importance  in  the  country.  The 
international  character  of  the  B'nai  B'rith  was 
first  established  in  1882  when  Moritz  Ellinger  or- 
ganized the  lodge  at  Berlin,  Germany,  which  was 
later  followed  by  many  other  lodges  in  Austria, 
Roumania,  England  and  Palestine.  It  had  its 
monthly  organ,  "The  Menorah,"  besides  a  number 
of  minor  publications,  it  established  orphanages 
at  Cleveland,  Atlanta  and  San  Francisco,  a  home 
for  aged  and  infirm  at  Yonkers,  and  an  asylum 
for  widows  and  orphans  at  New  Orleans.  To  it 
was  also  due  the  founding  of  the  Maimonides  Li- 
brary of  New  York,  the  Manual  Training  School 
of  Philadelphia,  the  Touro  Infirmary  of  New  Or- 
leans, and,  later,  the  National  Jewish  Hospital  for 
Consumptives  of  Denver.  It  exercised  great  influ- 
ence in  national  American  affairs,  due  to  which 
several  of  its  leading  members  were  honored  with 
appointments  to  high  governmental  offices,  such 
as  the  appointment  of  Benjamin  F.  Peixotto  (New 
York,  1834-1890)  as  Consul-General  to  Roumania 
(1870),  of  Simon  Wolf  (b.  Hinzweiler,  Bavaria, 
1836)  of  Washington,  as  Consul-General  to  Egypt 
(1881),  and  of  Solomon  Hirsch  (Wuertemberg, 
i839-Portland,  Ore.,  1902)  and  Oscar  Straus  (b. 
Otterberg,  1850),  both  of  whom  served  as  United 
States  Ministers  to  Turkey.  It  gave  rise  to  such 
prominent  leaders  as  Moritz  Ellinger,  Julius  Bien 
and  Leo  N.  Levi  and  in  many  and  various  ways, 


AMERICA  285 

proved  itself  a  great  power  for  good  in  American 
Jewish  life. 

The  success  of  the  B'nai  B'rith  soon  stimulated 
and  encouraged  the  creation  of  new  Orders,  such 
organizations  coming  to  life  with  the  Free  Sons 
of  Israel  (1849),  B'rith  Abraham  (1859),  Kesher 
Shel  Barzel  (1860),  Free  Sons  of  Benjamin 
(1879),  and  Independent  Order  B'rith  Abraham 
(1887).  These,  in  later  years,  became  the  strong- 
holds of  Russian  and  Roumanian  immigrants 
when  the  latter  had  arrived  in  the  land  in  suf- 
ficiently large  numbers.  While  some  of  them 
have  since  greatly  surpassed  the  B'nai  B'rith  in 
numbers,  they  have  never  attained  to  its  im- 
portance as  a  benevolent  and  cultural  organiza- 
tion. 

The  old  Spanish-Portuguese  stock  of  Jews,  how- 
ever, though  largely  forced  into  the  background 
by  the  German  Jewish  immigrants,  was  still  not 
so  completely  outnumbered  as  to  make  its  pres- 
ence wholly  unfelt  in  American  Jewish  life.  In- 
deed, some  of  the  best  and  noblest  men  and  women 
of  the  period  in  question  came  from  that  element. 
We  have  already  made  casual  mention  here  of 
Judah  Touro  (Newport,  R.  L,  1775-New  Orleans, 
1854),  hero  of  the  War  of  1812,  merchant-prince 
and  eminent  philanthropist,  whose  long  and 
eventful  life  embraced  memories  of  the  noblest 
and  most  thrilling  occurrences  in  the  history  of 
the  young  and  vigorous  republic,  going  back  to 
the  very  beginning  of  the  war  for  American  in- 
dependence. A  true  and  sincere  altruist,  Touro's 
benefactions  were  unlimited  in  scope  and  knew 
no  distinctions  of  race  or  creed.  To  him  and  to 
his  Christian  friend,  Amos  Lawrence,  belongs  the 
credit  of  supplying  the  last  twenty  thousand  dol- 
lars needed  for  the  completion  of  the  Bunker  Hill 
monument  (1843),  eac^  °f  them  giving  half  of 


286  HISTORY   OF   THE   JEWS 

that  amount.  The  tablet  placed  upon  the  monu- 
ment bears  testimony  to  his  liberality.  With  his 
name  is  forever  linked  the  Jewish  community  of 
his  native  city,  Newport,  which  he  repeatedly 
aided  in  the  maintenance  of  its  institutions,  and  in 
whose  historic  cemetery,  which  became  the  subject 
of  one  of  Longfellow's  inspiring  songs,  his  body 
lies  at  rest.  Another  noble  character  of  that  age 
was  Rebecca  Gratz  (Philadelphia,  1781-1869) 
whose  beauty  and  attainments  were  the  inspira- 
tion of  Walter  Scott  in  the  creation  of  his 
Rebecca  in  "Ivanhoe,"  and  who,  a  most  loyal  and 
enthusiastic  Jewess,  was  a  pioneer  of  Jewish  re- 
ligious education  in  America,  having,  in  1835, 
founded  the  first  American  Jewish  Sabbath 
School,  in  Philadelphia.  The  Jewish  Foster  Home 
of  that  city  also  owes  its  establishment  to  the  un- 
tiring zeal  and  energy  of  this  true  daughter  of 
Israel. 

Again,  there  was  that  embodiment  of  saintly 
womanhood  with  whose  name  the  Jewish  com- 
munity of  Charleston,  S.  C,  will  forever  be 
linked,  Penina  Moise  (Charleston,  1797-1880).  A 
member  of  a  distinguished  family  of  Alsatian- 
French  antecedents,  and  growing  up  within  an 
atmosphere  of  culture  and  refinement,  Penina 
Moise's  kindly  and  deeply  religious  nature  re- 
vealed itself  in  a  life  of  heroic  self-sacrifice  de- 
voted to  nursing  the  sick  of  her  city,  but  found 
its  noblest  expression  in  her  numerous  poems, 
hymns  and  anthems  which  are  replete  with  the 
fervor  and  rapture  of  deep-seated  faith.  Her  liter- 
ary gift,  testified  to  by  her  many  contributions  to 
the  periodicals  of  her  day,  is  never  shown  to 
greater  advantage  than  when  employed  in  the  chan- 
nel of  the  religious  song.  An  illness  of  many 
years  rendered  her  faith  all  the  more  potent,  and 
the  blindness  \vhich  finally  overtook  her  made  her, 


REBECCA n   GRATZ 
(1781-1869) 


AMERICA  287 

like  Milton,  see  even  more  clearly  through  the 
beauties  and  mysteries  of  creation.  To  this  day 
her  hymns  are  used  by  the  Charleston  Jews,  in 
common  with  other  communities,  with  the  rever- 
ence due  to  the  master-work  of  a  master-soul, 
from  her  beautiful  and  stirring  songs  they  per- 
ceiving that  glow  and  ecstasy  of  religion,  that 
pride  of  race  and  love  and  appreciation  of  life 
which  abided  with  their  great  townswoman.  We 
can  find  space  here  for  but  a  few  random  selec- 
tions of  the  hundreds  of  hymns  penned  by  this 
remarkable  woman  who  was  a  nineteenth  cen- 
tury incarnation  of  the  ancient  Payyetanim.  Thus 
she  sings  of  "Man's  Dignity": 


"O  God!  within  Thy  temple-walls, 

Light  my  spirit  seems,  and  free, 
Regardless  of  those  worldly  calls, 

That  withdraw  it  oft  from  Thee. 
Faith  to  the  proudest  whispers:  Here 

Riches  are  but  righteous  deeds, 
And  he  who  dries  a  human  tear, 

Ne'er  to  mercy  vainly  pleads. 

Can  sorrow  at  Thy  altar  raise 

The  voice  of  lamentation  ? 
Oh,  no!  its  plaint  is  changed  to  praise, 

Regret,  to  resignation, 
To  naught  all  human  evil  shrinks, 

Where  revelation  showeth 
That  God  each  soul  to  heaven  links, 

Which  ne'er  in  trust  foregoeth. 

Oh !  brightest,  most  benignant  boon, 

Above  all  others  rated; 
With  Thee,  Creator  to  commune, 

In  temples  consecrated ; 
That  when  life's  boundary  is  past, 

More  glorious  still  appears; 
Since  sanctuary,  we  at  last, 

Find  in  celestial  spheres — 


288  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

Where  no  distinction  shall  be  found, 

Between  immortals  heav'n  born, 
And  spirits  that,  by  virtue  crowned, 

Once  the  chains  of  earth  have  worn. 
Merciful  Father!  may  Thy  child 

Claim  this  privilege  divine? 
Shall  I,  by  sinful  thoughts  defiled, 

Call  a  boon  so  precious  mine? 

My  courage  fails  not,  since  Thy  grace 

Exceeds  in  boundless  measure, 
The  guilt  of  that  transgressive  race 

Who  kindle  Thy  displeasure. 
Therefore  to  the  house  of  pray'r 

E'er  will  I  my  steps  address, 
All  Thy  mercies  to  declare, 

While  my  errors  I  confess." 

She  paraphrases  Psalm  XXXVIII  in  the  follow- 
ing stirring  verses : 

"Rebuke  me  not  nor  chasten  me, 

In  Thy  displeasure,  Lord! 

But  let  a  frail  transgressor  be 

To  virtue's  path  restored. 

My  heart  like  grass  is  withered  up, 

Sorrow  my  strength  destroys ; 
Sin's  bitter  drop  within  my  cup, 

Life's  sparkling  draught  alloys. 

In  vain  my  spirit  seeks  repose 

From  all  its  worldly     cares; 
Mine  adversaries  round  me  close, 

They  compass  me  with  snares. 

My  friends  and  kinsmen  stand  aloof, 

And  mock  me  from  afar ; 
My  soul,  untouched  by  their  reproof, 

Turns  to  its  guiding  Star. 

For  with  unbroken  trust  will  I 

In  Thee,  my  God !  confide, 
Who  deigns  the  meek  to  dignify, 

The  arrogant  to  chide." 


AMERICA  28g 

She  piously  meditates  on  the  Jewish  New  Year : 
"Into  the  tomb  of  ages  past 
Another  year  hath  now  been  cast: 
Shall  time,  unheeded,  take  its  flight, 
Nor  leave  one  ray  of  moral  light, 
That  on  man's  pilgrimage  may  shine, 
And  lead  his  soul  to  spheres  divine? 

Ah,  which  of  us,  if  self-reviewed, 

Can  boast  unfailing  rectitude? 

Who  can  declare  his  wayward  will 

More  prone  to  righteous  deeds  than  ill? 

Or,  in  his  retrospect  of  life, 

No  traces  find  of  passion's  strife? 

A  'still  small  voice'   as  time  departs, 
Bids  us  inspect  our  secret  hearts, 
Whose  hidden  depths  too  oft  contain 
Some  spot  which,  suffered  to  remain, 
Will  (slight  at  first)  by  sad  neglect 
The  hue  of  vice  at  last  reflect. 

With  firm  resolve  your  bosoms  nerve 
The  God  of  truth  alone  to  serve, 
Speech,  thought,  and  act  to  regulate, 
By  what  His  perfect  laws  dictate; 
Nor  from  His  sanctuary  stray, 
By  worldly  idols  lured  away. 

Peace  to  the  house  of  Israel! 
May  joy  within  it  ever  dwell! 
May  sorrow  on  the  opening  year, 
Forgetting  its  accustomed  tear, 
With  smiles  again  fond  kindred  meet, 
With  homes  revived  the  festal  greet!" 

But  by  far  the  noblest  Jewish  figure  of  the  age, 
likewise  of  Sephardic  origin,  was  Emma  Lazarus 
(New  York,  1849-1887),  literary  protege  of  Wil- 
liam Cullen  Bryant  and  friend  and  disciple  of 
Ralph  Walo  Emerson.  Her  poetic  talent  revealed 
itself  in  her  early  youth,  received  greater  impetus 
by  the  heroisms  and  tragedies  of  the  Civil  War, 
and  finally  showed  itself  in  its  entire  greatness 
and  beauty  with  the  horrors  attendant  upon  the 
Russian  pogroms  of  1881  and  the  influx  of  the 
Russian  Jewish  refugees  into  the  United  States. 


29°  HISTORY   OF   THE   JEWS 

For  Emma  Lazarus  was  pre-eminently  a  Jewish 
poet,  all  her  other  poems  on  secular  and  general 
themes  paling  into  insignificance  by  the  side  of 
her  Jewish  songs,  pulsating  with  the  pathos  and 
grandeur  of  her  people's  tragedy.  It  was  the 
Russian  persecutions  which  brought  to  the  sur- 
face the  hidden  wealth  of  her  soul  and  gave  her 
the  one  fit  theme  to  make  her  verse  immortal. 
Lazarus's  return  to  her  people  and  her  renewed 
interest  in  Hebrew  and  Biblical  studies  date  from 
the  time  the  ports  of  America  began  to  fill  with 
the  hapless  immigrants.  In  their  misfortune  she 
saw  the  recrudescence  of  the  Jew's  eternal  fate. 
Yet  their  humiliation  and  anguish  was  no  cause- 
for  despair,  for  God  was  still  with  his  people: 

"Oh,  deem  not  dead  that  martial  fire, 
Say  not  the  mystic  flame  is  spent! 
With  Moses'  Law  and  David's  lyre, 

Your  ancient  strength  remains  unbent. 
Let  but  an  Ezra  rise  anew, 

To  lift  the  Banner  of  the  Jew !" 

(The  Banner  of  the  Jew,  1881.) 

And  the  shame  of  the  Jew's  suffering  recoils 
upon  his  Christian  tormentor: 

"When  the  long  roll  of  Christian  guilt 
Against  his  sires  and  kin  is  known, 
The  flood  of  tears,  the  life-blood  spilt, 

The  agony  of  ages  shown. 
What  oceans  can  the  stain  remove, 
From  Christian  law  and  Christian  love?" 

(The  Crowing  of  the  Red  Cock,  1881.) 

But  as  for  the  Jew: 

"Even  as  we  die  in  honor,  from  our  death 
Shall  bloom  a  myriad  heroic  lives, 
Brave  through  our  bright  example,  virtuous 
Lest  our  great  memory  fall  in  disrepute. 
Is  one  among  us,  brothers,  would  exchange 
His  doom  against  our  tyrants — lot  for  lot? 
Let  him  go  forth  aoid  live — he  is  no  Jew. 
Is  one  who  would  not  die  in  Israel 


AMERICA  291 

Rather  than  live  in  Christ — their  Christ  who  smiles 

On  such  a  deed  as  this?    Let  him  go  forth — 

He  may  die  full  of  years  upon  his  bed. 

Ye  who  nurse  rancor  haply  in  your  hearts, 

Fear  ye  we  perish  unavenged  ?    Not  so ! 

To-day,  no !  nor  to-morrow,  but  in  God's  time. 

Our  witnesses  arise.    Ours  is  truth, 

Ours  is  the  power,  the  gift  of  Heaven.    We  hold 

His  Law,  His  lamp,  His  covenant,  His  pledge. 

Wherever  in  the  ages  shall  arise 

Jew-priest,  Jew-poet,  Jew-singer  or  Jew-saint — 

And  everywhere  I  see  them  star  the  gloom — 

In  each  of  these  the  martyrs  are  avenged!" 

(The  Dance  to  Death,  1882.) 

Like  nearly  all  true  and  loyal  souls  in  Israel, 
Emma  Lazarus,  too,  indulged  in  the  dream  of  a 
Jewish  restoration  in  Palestine  and  with  her  older 
sister,  Josephine,  wrote  a  number  of  articles  to 
the  leading  Jewish  and  secular  magazines  of  her 
time,  advocating  the  plans  which,  less  than  ten 
years  after  her  untimely  death,  were  to  lend  in- 
spiration to  Theodore  Herzl's  "Judenstaat." 

It  was  Emma  Lazarus  who,  on  the  occasion  of 
the  arrival  of  the  Bartholdi  Statue  of  Liberty  for 
erection  in  the  New  York  Harbor,  wrote  her  fine 
sonnet,  'The  Colossus,"  which  has  since  been  af- 
fixed to  the  great  monument: 

"Not  like  the  brazen,  giant  of  Greek  fame, 
With  conquering  limbs  astride  from  land  to  land, 
Here  at  our  sea-washed,  sunset  gates  shall  stand 
A  mighty  woman  with  a  torch,  whose  flame 
Is  the  imprisoned  lightning,  and  her  name 
Mother  of  Exiles.     From  her  beacon-hand 
Glows  world-wide  welcome  ;  her  mild  eyes  command 
The  air-bridged  harbor  that  twin-cities  frame. 
'Keep,  ancient  lands,  your  storied  pomp!' 
Cries  she 

With  silent  lips.     'Give  me  your  tired,  your  poor 
Your  huddled  masses  yearning  to  breathe  free, 
The  wretched  refuse  of  your  teeming  shore, 
Send  these,  the  homeless,  tempest-tost  to  me. 
I  lift  my  lamp  beside  the  golden  door !'  " 


HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

Yet  these  few  scions  of  the  noble  Sephardic 
stock  were  the  last  great  spirits  in  a  history  cov- 
ering more  than  two  centuries  of  pioneer  and  colo- 
nial Judaism.  The  Spanish  and  Portuguese  Jew 
was  now  submerged  under  the  mighty  wave  of 
German-Jewish  migration  which  inundated  all  of 
the  original  Jewish  settlements  and  soon  lent  its 
own  color  to  all  phases  of  American  Jewish  life. 
Under  the  valiant  captaincy  of  the  prominent  Re- 
form rabbis  American  Judaism  began  to  show 
signs  of  its  marvellous  possibilties  and,  though 
still  strongly  provincial,  was  undergoing  its 
preparation  for  the  role  it  was  later  to  be  called 
on  to  play  in  the  world  problems  of  the  Jew.  To 
them  Judaism  was  still  only  the  religious  expres- 
sion of  the  Jew,  having  none  of  its  present-day 
implications.  The  question  of  religious  reforms 
alone  assumed  for  them  serious  proportions, 
though  even  this  was  to  reveal  its  real  meaning- 
fulness  and  importance  only  in  later  years. 
Theirs  was  a  world  small  and  circumscribed  yet 
great  in  the  potentiality  of  its  promise.  From 
1848  to  1880  the  German  Jew  is  supreme  in  Amer- 
ican Jewish  life  by  the  force  of  his  greater  num- 
bers, his  intellectuality,  his  material  wealth  and 
his  public  spirit.  He,  too,  however,  was  soon  to 
share  a  fate  like  unto  that  meted  out  by  him  to 
his  Sephardic  co-religionist.  Already  the  Russian 
Jew  was  at  the  door,  ready,  ere  long,  to  transform 
American  Jewish  life  into  one  of  his  own  making. 


AMERICA  293 


B.   THE  RUSSIAN   PERIOD 


The  wording  of  the  above  title  needs  qualifying1. 
For  within  what  is  styled  the  "Russian"  period 
there  have  entered  a  number  of  non-Russian  ele- 
ments, notably  those  from  Roumania  and  Galicia 
which,  down  to  the  end  of  the  first  decade  of  the 
twentieth  century,  formed  a  considerable  percent- 
age of  Jewish  immigration  to  the  United  States, 
their  number  being  augmented  only  within  the  last 
few  years  by  a  new  wave  of  Sephardic  immigra- 
tion, coming  this  time  from  Turkey  and  the  Orient. 
The  Russian  Jews,  however,  forming,  as  they  do, 
an  overwhelming  majority  of  the  entire  East-Euro- 
pean migration  to  the  western  world,  it  is  but  nat- 
ural that  they  should  have  placed  their  own  impress 
upon  the  whole  period  in  question,  rendering  the 
other  elements  a  more  or  less  negligible  quantity. 
Besides,  the  immigrants  coming  from  Roumania 
and  Galicia  were  so  like  their  Russian  co-religion- 
ists in  many  essential  details,  all  of  them  speaking 
the  same  Yiddish  dialect  with  only  slight  variations 
-of  accent  and  vocabulary,  all  of  them  cherishing 
the  same  orthodox  beliefs,  many  of  them  having 
come  under  the  same  Cabbalistic  and  Hassidic  influ- 
ences, that  it  were  futile  to  attempt  to  classify  them 
as  separate  and  distinct  migratory  streams.  Being 
numerically  inferior,  the  Roumanian  and  Galician 
Jews  were  for  a  time  absorbed  among  their  Rus- 


294  HISTORY    OF   THE    JEWS 

sian  brethren  with  whom  they  formed  a  unit  in  re- 
ligious and  communal  work.  It  was  only  with  the 
growth  of  their  numbers  that  these  Jews  were  able 
to  assert  themselves  more  fully,  organizing  their 
own  congregations  and  charities,  federating  their 
numerous  activities,  and  exerting  a  limited  influ- 
ence upon  the  trend  of  Jewish  life  in  America. 

To  be  sure,  there  were  Russian  and  Polish  Jews 
in  the  United  States  long  before  the  eighties  of  the 
last  century.  The  story  of  Hayim  Salomon,  a  na- 
tive of  Lissa,  Poland,  who  financed  Robert  Morris, 
shows  that  Jewish  immigrants  from  Poland  wended 
their  way  to  America  even  before  the  American 
Revolution.  It  is  known  that  a  considerable  num- 
ber of  Russian  Jews  landed  in  America  during  the 
forties  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  several  of 
the  largest  and  oldest  orthodox  congregations  or- 
ganized by  Russian  Jews  in  New  York  City,  the 
Shaari  Zedek  congregation  of  Henry  Street,  and 
the  Bet  ha-Midrash  ha-Gadol  of  Norfolk  Street, 
date  from  those  days.  Almost  every  time  the  Rus- 
sian Czars  put  the  thumb-screws  of  persecution 
upon  their  Jewish  subjects,  the  act  would  be  fol- 
lowed by  an  exodus  to  Germany,  England  and 
America.  None  the  less,  it  was  the  pogroms  and 
inhuman  persecutions  at  the  beginning  of  the  reign 
of  Alexander  III  which  made  possible  the  creation 
of  the  large  and  powerful  Russian-Jewish  colony 
in  the  United  States.  It  is  estimated  that  prior  to 
1870  the  number  of  these  Jews  did  not  exceed  seven 
thousand  of  a  total  Jewish  population  of  about  two 
hundred  thousand  souls.  The  heavier  migration 
between  1871-1880  may  have  increased  this  num- 
ber to  fifty  thousand,  while  from  1881  to  1890  the 
Russian  Jews  averaged  more  than  twenty  thou- 
sand immigrants  yearly.  The  decade  of  1891-1900 
saw  these  figures  double.  The  late  Dr.  Joseph  Ja- 
cobs gives  the  number  of  immigrants  arriving  from 


AMERICA  295 

1 88 1  to  1910  as  1,572,936,  which,  together  with  the 
natural  increase  for  that  period,  brings  the  total  up 
to  2,349,754  in  July,  1910.  The  present  number  of 
Russian  Jews  living  in  all  parts  of  the  country  may 
therefore  conservatively  be  estimated  at  about  two 
millions  out  of  a  total  Jewish  population  of  more 
than  three  million  souls. 

The  American  Jew  to-day  is  preeminently  a  city 
dweller,  and  the  Russian  Jew  is,  by  the  force  of 
historic  circumstances,  instinctively  so.  His  flock- 
ing to  the  large  seaboard  cities  in  the  Eastern  and 
Middle  Atlantic  States  is  explainable  on  the  ground 
of  habit  no  less  than  on  that  of  economic  or  social 
necessity.  Yet  if  those  who  looked  after  the  in- 
terests of  the  Russian  immigrants  to  America  in 
the  early  eighties  had  had  their  way,  those  immi- 
grants might  have  become  farmers  instead  of 
sweat-shop  workers  and  merchants  in  the  city 
ghettos,  and  a  different  chapter  would  have  been 
written  in  the  annals  of  American  Jewry.  The 
original  intention  of  the  committees  in  charge  of 
immigrant  work  in  America  was  to  direct  the 
course  of  settlement  from  the  city  to  the  farm.  The 
motives  behind  the  scheme  varied  from  the  selfish 
fear  of  seeing  too  many  of  theSe  Jews  inundate  the 
big  American  cities  and  thus  give  rise  to  a  "Jewish 
Problem"  in  a  land  where  it  had  hitherto  been  non- 
existent, to  the  laudable  altruistic  desire  of  amelio- 
rating the  dire  condition  of  these  refugees.  The 
idea  of  immigrant  colonization,  however,  was  not 
altogether  of  American  origin.  It  had,  indeed, 
found  its  birth  with  the  immigrants  themselves  and 
prior  to  their  emigration  from  Russia,  where  a 
great  movement  had  been  set  on  foot  to  place  the 
Jew  on  the  soil  in  the  new  land  of  his  destination. 

This  colonization  movement  was  the  direct  result 
of  the  riots  and  massacres  of  Yelisavetgrad  and 
Kiev.  A  society  of  prospective  immigrants  was 


296  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

organized  under  the  name  of  "Am  Olam"  (The 
Eternal  People)  with  branches  in  many  cities  and, 
headed  by  Herman  Rosenthal  (Friedrichstadt, 
Courland,  i843-New  York,  1917),  poet  and  author 
of  many  works  both  serious  and  humorous  in  Ger- 
man, Russian  and  Hebrew,  a  printer  by  trade  and 
an  active  participant  in  the  economic  and  cultural 
movements  of  his  day — several  hundred  of  them 
sailed  for  the  United  States  in  October,  1881.  In 
New  York  the  Hebrew  Emigrant  Aid  Society  had 
been  formed  and  another  organization,  the  Mon- 
tefiore  Agricultural  Aid  Society,  was  called  into 
life  by  Michael  Heilprin  (Piotrkow,  Russian-Po- 
land, i823-Summit,  N.  J.,  1888),  the  eminent  lit- 
terateur and  distinguished  Jew  of  his  day.  Unfor- 
tunately for  the  enterprise,  Rosenthal  chose  to  work 
independently,  and  without  the  guidance  of  any- 
one set  out  upon  the  ill-starred  attempt  to  found  a 
colony  on  Sicily  Island,  Catahoula  Parish,  near 
Bayou  Louis,  Louisiana.  He  had  no  funds,  but  a 
committee  from  New  York,  consisting  of  Myer  S. 
Isaacs,  M.  Ellinger,  Dr.  Julius  Goldman,  Charles 
L.  Bernheim  and  Henry  S.  Henry,  acting  for  the 
Alliance  Israelite  Universelle,  advanced  him  the 

I  * 

sum  of  $2,800,  and  with  this  pitifully  small 
amount  Rosenthal  proceeded  to  Louisiana  with  the 
173  men  and  women  of  whom  the  colony  was  to 
consist.  It  was  soon  discovered  that  the  5,000  acres 
thus  purchased  had  been  largely  overpaid.  The 
housing  conditions,  too,  were  very  bad,  the  immi- 
grants being  forced  to  temporarily  occupy  three 
old  and  abandoned  buildings  that  had  been  left  over 
from  slavery  days.  Undaunted  by  this,  the  col- 
onists entered  upon  their  labors  with  much  zeal, 
and  were  greatly  helped  by  the  New  Orleans  branch 
of  the  Alliance  Israelite  which,  through  Julius 
Weiss,  furnished  them  with  lumber  for  building 
purposes,  horses,  cattle,  farm  implements,  etc.  The 


MICHAEL   HEILPRIN 
(1823-1888) 


AMERICA  297 

land  soon  underwent  much  improvement,  and  hope 
for  ultimate  success  was  high  when,  in  the  Spring 
of  1882,  the  Mississippi  River  overflowed  the  en- 
tire region,  sweeping  away  everything — even  the 
crops  and  the  houses  and  causing  a  damage  of 
about  $20,000.  The  colony  was  broken  up,  its  mem- 
bers scattering  in  all  directions,  and  Rosenthal  re- 
turned to  New  York,  there  to  begin  planning  anew 
for  a  like  venture  in  another  and  more  favorable 
locality. 

His  next  enterprise  was  in  the  southeastern  part 
of  the  present  South  Dakota,  where  in  the  summer 
of  1882  he  and  twenty  families  founded  the  "Cre- 
mieux"  colony.  Among  the  settlers  were  some  from 
the  ill-fated  Louisiana  colony,  but  the  Dakota  at- 
tempt looked  more  promising.  Most  of  the  colo- 
nists had  independent  means,  and  during  the  first 
year  the  crops  were  good.  Oats,  wheat,  rye,  and 
barley  were  sown,  and  special  attention  was  paid 
to  the  raising  of  flax.  The  second  year,  however, 
saw  the  frustration  of  their  hopes.  The  wheat-bug 
made  its  appearance,  destroying  a  large  portion  of 
the  crops,  and  a  fierce  drought  set  in  killing  most 
of  the  cattle.  The  third  year  was  even  worse  ow- 
ing to  the  destructive  thunderstorms,  and  the  little 
colony  soon  dwindled  away.  The  great  distance  of 
the  colony  from  the  railway  and  the  county-seat 
was  also  a  great  handicap.  Toward  the  end  of 
1885  the  colony  was  completely  abandoned. 

Michael  Heilprin  took  a  great  interest  in  the 
South  Dakota  colony,  and  encouraged  the  colonists 
to  persist  in  their  work.  The  Montefiore  Agricul- 
tural Aid  Society  with  which  he  was  connected  and 
which  included  among  its  members  many  of  the 
prominent  Jews  of  the  day,  actively  helped  in  the 
enterprise  and  in  others  of  a  like  nature.  Among 
its  ventures  were  the  New  Odessa  colony,  in  Doug- 
las. County,  Oregon ;  the  Bethlehem- Yehudah,  in 


298  HISTORY    OF   THE   JEWS 

South  Dakota;  the  Carmel,  in  New  Jersey;  the 
Montefiore,  Lasker,  Hebron,  Gilead,  Touro  and 
Leeser,  in  Kansas.  Other  colonizing  attempts  were 
made  in  Michigan  (Palestine),  in  Virginia  (Wash- 
ington, Waterview),  in  Connecticut  (Chester- 
field), in  New  Jersey  (Alliance,  Rosenhayn,  Wood- 
bine, Montefiore,  May's  Landing,  Halberton, 
Malaga,  Hightstown).  Of  these  only  some  of  the 
New  Jersey  colonies,  like  Alliance,  Carmel,  Rosen- 
hayn  and  Woodbine,  are  still  eking  out  a  precari- 
ous existence,  and  even  they  would  have  dissolved 
but  for  the  aid  frequently  given  them  by  the  Baron 
de  Hirsch  Fund  and  the  Alliance  Israelite  Univer- 
selle.  But  few  of  the  colonists  can  to  this  day  sub- 
sist exclusively  on  farming,  and  most  of  them  are 
compelled  to  engage  in  other  industries  for  a  living. 
Heilprin  gives  an  interesting  account  of  the  re- 
ception accorded  in  New  York  to  the  first  Russian 
Jewish  refugees  by  their  more  fortunate  German- 
American  brethren  and  of  the  development  of  the 
colonization  plan,  in  the  appeal  issued  by  him  and 
his  colleagues  of  the  Montefiore  Agricultural  Aid 
Society  in  1883.  He  writes:  "We  devoted  our 
first  attention  to  an  organized  association  of  ca- 
pable and  well-educated  young  men  from  South 
Russia,  chiefly  from  Odessa  and  its  environs.  We 
formed  a  small  committee  for  the  foundation  of  a 
colony  to  be  called  New  Odessa.  It  was  no  light 
task  to  collect  means  for  this  object,  at  a  time  when 
every  day  brought  into  our  port  vessels  thronged 
with  refugees,  whose  hunger  and  want  of  shelter 
pressed  every  other  claim  upon  public  charity  into 
the  background.  We  had  also  to  contend  with  an 
anti-Russian  prejudice,  an  outgrowth  of  ignorance 
and  self-over-estimation  kindred  to  Antisemitism. 
But  few  understood  the  language,  the  sentiments, 
the  aims  and  inclinations  of  the  strangers.  But 
few  would  believe  that  among  the  wrecks  of  dis- 


HERMAN  ROSENTHAL 
(1843-1917) 


AMERICA  299 

tant  communities  which  a  storm  of  persecution  had 
driven  to  our  shores,  there  was  material  for  con- 
struction which  might  become  an  honor  to  this 
country,  and  to  all  Israel.  The  misery  which  made 
its  appearance  in  our  thoroughfares  offered  an  as- 
pect far  from  attractive.  Its  cries  of  impatience 
were  disturbing  sounds.  The  resignation  and  self- 
helping  efforts  of  the  most  modest  and  patient  suf- 
ferers escaped  attention.  The  offences  of  the  few 
were  charged  upon  the  multitude.  Prejudice  bred 
prejudice;  an  unbrotherly  treatment  produced  ran- 
cor and  spite,  together  with  despondency.  Many 
a  small  gift  was  offered  with  rudeness,  some  gen- 
erous help  was  requited  with  ingratitude.  The 
first  attempts  to  found  an  agricultural  colony  (in 
Louisiana)  failed  in  consequence  of  hasty  action 
and  an  improper  choice  of  the  locality.  Public 
benevolence  limited  itself  to  offering  sustenance 
and  occasional  aid,  which  required  immense  sums. 
Only  when  dire  necessity  demanded  the  removal 
of  many  of  the  unfortunates  from  the  overcrowd- 
ed city  districts,  were  colonizing  attempts  on  a 
larger  scale  made  by  the  Hebrew  Emigrant  Aid 
Society — in  the  States  of  New  Jersey  and  Col- 
orado— partly  with  means  obtained  from  Europe. 
A  great  deal  was  sacrificed,  with  little  faith." 

It  was  evident  that  the  Russian  Jew,  for  no 
fault  of  his  own,  was  not  to  make  his  mark  in 
the  New  World  as  a  farmer,  that,  despite  all  ef- 
forts to  prevent  it,  he  was  to  be  a  city  dweller  in 
America  even  as  he  was  in  Europe,  and  that  in- 
dependently of  what  the  German  Jew  thought  of 
him  or  planned  for  him,  he  was  to  walk  his  own 
way  and  develop  his  life  along  lines  that  best 
suited  his  temperament  and  his  inborn  spiritual 
and  cultural  inclinations.  It  is  perhaps  well  that 
it  was  so. 

Yet  the  attempts  at  colonization  en  masse,  abor- 


3OO  HISTORY   OF   THE   JEWS 

tive  as  they  were  and  precarious  as  are  their  re- 
sults to  this  day,  have  nevertheless  had  a  vastly 
beneficent  effect  upon  the  newcomers.  It  made 
them  accustomed  to  the  soil  and  to  rural  life,  so 
that  even  those  who  were  compelled  to  return  to 
the  cities  continued  to  long  for  the  country,  and 
many  of  them  did  return  to  it  as  soon  as  they 
could  save  up  enough  money  to  invest  in  a  farm- 
ing; enterprise,  starting  this  time  as  independent 
farmers,  not  subject  to  the  good  will  of  any  of 
the  charity  funds  and  colonization  agencies,  and 
with  all  the  vim  and  enthusiasm  and  glow  of  pride 
which  such  independence  brings.  This,  too,  will 
account  for  their  success  as  individuals  where 
they  had  failed  as  "colonists."  Many  hundreds 
of  Jewish  families  are  to-day  deriving  a  comfort- 
able livelihood  from  farming  in  various  parts  of 
New  York  and  in  the  Western  States,  some  hav- 
ing even  accumulated  wealth  through  it.  They 
are  organized  into  Jewish  Farmers'  Associations 
in  the  states  of  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Connecti- 
cut, Massachusetts,  Pennsylvania,  North  Dakota 
and  Washington,  whose  number  in  1916  was 
fifty-nine  with  an  aggregate  individual  member- 
ship of  about  two  thousand.  They  also  have  their 
own  Yiddish  organ,  and  the  "Federation  of  Jew- 
ish Farmers  of  America"  has  since  its  organiza- 
tion appropriated  for  loans  to  farmers  sums  ag- 
gregating more  than  a  million  and  a  half  dollars. 
Another  beneficent  outcome  of  the  colonization 
plan  was  the  establishment  of  the  agricultural 
schools  for  scientific  farming,  the  one  in  Wood- 
bine, N.  J.  (1895)  by  the  Baron  de  Hirsch  Fund, 
and  the  other  at  Doylestown,  Bucks  County,  Penn- 
sylvania (1896),  which  was  founded  by  Dr.  Jo- 
seph Krauskopf  as  the  "National  Farm  School." 
Henceforth  the  errors  of  the  hasty  colonization 
of  the  past  were  to  be  avoided  by  means  of  a 


BARON  MOSES  DE  HIRSCU 
(1831-1896) 


AMERICA  3OI 

systematic    and    orderly    training   as    farmers    of 
hundreds  of  Russian-Jewish  youths  in  America. 

In  the  meantime,  another,  larger  and  more  suc- 
cessful attempt  at  colonization  was  being  carried 
out  in  the  Argentine  Republic  by  Baron  de 
Hirsch.  Having  concluded  that  the  salvation  of 
the  Russian  Jew  lay  in  agricultural  pursuits,  and 
obtaining  the  sanction  of  the  Russian  government 
for  his  colonization  scheme,  Hirsch,  in  1891,  se- 
cured sixty-two  thousand  acres  of  land  in  the 
province  of  Buenos  Ayres,  upon  which  he  found- 
ed the  colony  of  Mauricio.  To  this,  under  the 
direction  of  the  St.  Petersburg  central  committee 
which  was  headed  by  Baron  Horace  Guenzburg, 
more  than  two  thousand  persons  were  despatched 
during  the  first  year.  The  direction  of  the  col- 
onies was  placed  in  the  hands  of  Colonel  Albert 
Goldsmith  of  the  British  army.  Soon  thereafter 
more  land  was  purchased  in  the  provinces  of 
Santa  Fe,  Entre-Rios  and  Pampa,  and  other  col- 
onies were  established,  the  Moiseville,  Clara,  San 
Antonio,  Santa  Isabel,  Lucienville,  Baron  de 
Hirsch,  and  Bernassoni.  In  the  face  of  many 
discouraging  incidents,  the  failure  of  some  of  the 
immigrants  to  adjust  themselves  to  the  new  con- 
ditions, and  the  return  of  many  of  them  to  Rus- 
sia, the  Baron  continued  his  efforts  along  care- 
fully laid  plans.  Gradually  the  colonies  began  to 
prosper  and  the  number  of  colonists  increased. 
In  1917  more  than  twenty-three  thousand  Jews 
were  to  be  found  in  these  colonies,  most  of  them 
self-supporting  and  on  the  road  to  wealth.  By 
the  end  of  1910  these  colonists  had  paid  back 
their  indebtedness  to  the  amount  of  more  than 
half  a  million  dollars,  while  their  land  had  nearly 
doubled  in  value.  In  the  wake  of  this  coloniza- 
tion Jewish  communities  were  established  also  in 
the  larger  cities:  Buenos  Ayres,  Cordova,  Santa 


3O2  HISTORY   OF   THE    JEWS 

Fe,  Rosario  and  Mendoza.  Of  these  Buenos 
Ayres  has  the  largest  centre,  numbering  about 
sixty-five  thousand  Jews,  who  have  one  large 
synagogue,  a  number  of  smaller  houses  of  wor- 
ship, and  a  Spanish  and  Yiddish  press.  The 
present  Jewish  population  of  Argentina  is  esti- 
mated at  about  one  hundred  and  ten  thousand 
souls. 

However,  the  history  of  the  Russian  Jew  in 
America,  especially  in  the  United  States,  is  insep- 
arably bound  up  with  the  big  city  settlements 
rather  than  with  the  agricultural  colonies  or  the 
towns  and  the  villages.  Due  to  his  concentration 
in  large  numbers  in  the  great  cities  of  North 
America,  it  was  possible  for  him  to  retain  the 
chief  characteristics  of  his  individuality,  this  at 
the  same  time  not  hindering  him  from  coming 
under  the  cultural  and  economic  influences  of  the 
native  American  life.  As  a  result,  he  soon  pro- 
duced a  new  type  of  Jew,  interesting  in  its  pe- 
culiarity, sometimes  repelling  but  more  often  fas- 
cinating by  the  originality  and  multiplicity  of  its 
phases. 

From  an  economic  standpoint  the  Russian  Jew 
has  proved  himself  the  wonder  of  the  age.  Com- 
ing to  America  the  hounded  and  fear-haunted 
creature  of  the  centuries,  broken  in  body  and 
spirit,  .with  hardly  enough  money  to  secure  his 
first  meal  on  American  soil,  an  object  of  pity  and 
charity  from  the  very  first,  he  has  had  to  face 
an  economic  struggle  unknown  to  either  his  Por- 
tuguese or  German  co-religionists  who  had  pre- 
ceded him  in  the  United  States.  Yet  he  showed 
himself  most  equal  to  the  task.  There  was  not  a 
trade  he  would  not  tackle,  not  an  occupation,  be 
it  even  the  very  humblest,  he  would  not  enter 
upon.  The  hardships  of  the  peddler's  trade  failed 
to  deter  him,  and  the  tediousness  and  unsanitari- 


AMERICA  303 

ness  of  the  sweat-shop  toil  could  not  discourage 
him  in  his  quest  for  a  living-.  In  the  end  he 
came  out  victorious.  The  one-time  peddlers  are 
now  department-store  proprietors  and  the  erst- 
while sweat-shop  toilers  are  to-day  among  the 
leading  manufacturers  and  factory  owners.  A 
Russian  Jew  in  New  York  is  at  the  head  of  the 
largest  construction  and  building  firm  in  the 
world.  Another  Russian  immigrant  is  to-day  the 
most  prominent  merchant  of  Baltimore.  A  third 
is  the  leading  spirit  in  the  vast  mining  interests 
controlled  by  the  Lewisohns.  He  cuts  a  promi- 
nent figure  in  Wall  Street  and  on  the  Exchange, 
while  Broadway  would  be  a  desert  without  the 
thousands  of  Russian-Jewish  firms  which  are  ten- 
anting its  big  emporiums  and  office  buildings. 

By  sheer  accident  the  first  Russian  Jews  took 
to  tailoring  on  their  arrival  in  America,  and  many 
of  those  who  followed  them  adopted  that  trade 
by  the  force  of  example.  This  industry  did  not 
originate  with  them.  It  existed  there  before  their 
arrival  in  large  numbers,  and  had  been  the  source 
of  enrichment  of  many  a  German  Jew.  The  Rus- 
sian Jew  only  enlarged  the  scope  of  the  trade,  de- 
veloped all  of  its  possibilities  and  made  it  one  of 
the  leading  industries  of  the  land.  This  led  to 
the  sweating  evil,  resulting  from  the  fact  that 
temperamentally  the  Jew  dislikes  to  be  an  em- 
ployee, preferring  to  work  independently  if  he  can 
help  it.  The  manufacturer  was  not  averse  to 
having  part  of  his  orders  filled  for  him  by  con- 
tractors who,  in  their  turn,  allowed  a  portion  of 
the  work  to  be  done  by  sub-contractors.  The 
number  of  these  latter  grew  in  amazing  propor- 
tion, working  in  small  and  dingy  shops  and  often 
in  their  homes  where,  besides  one  or  two  hired 
men  and  women,  the  wife  and  the  children  also 
were  enlisted  in  the  work.  At  the  same  time 


304  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

sweating  was  also  carried  on  on  a  large  scale,  in 
huge  buildings  not  always  provided  with  safety 
measures  against  fires,  and  sometimes  resulting 
in  serious  accidents  with  the  loss  of  many  lives. 
These  conditions  presented  a  serious  situation  for 
the  immigrants,  especially  for  those  living  in  New 
York,  three-fourths  of  whose  Jewish  workers  are 
still  engaged  in  the  various  branches  of  the  cloth- 
ing trade.  It  led  to  the  establishment  of  the 
Trade-Unions.  Strikes  soon  ensued  which  in  most 
instances  brought  victory  to  the  toilers.  In  the 
great  cloak-maker  strike  of  1890,  in  which  the 
Jewish  workers  persisted  for  eight  weeks,  they 
scored  a  big  triumph,  enabling  them  to  earn  dur- 
ing the  busy  season  from  $25  to  $30  a  week, 
which  for  those  years  was  an  unusual  compensa- 
tion. Another  great  strike  won  by  the  cloak- 
makers  was  the  one  of  1892,  though  by  this  time 
the  employers  had  formed  a  strong  protective  as- 
sociation with  great  means  at  its  command  to 
wage  the  fight  against  the  strikers.  That  strike 
produced  a  leader  in  the  person  of  Joseph  Baron- 
dess,  then  the  secretary  of  the  cloak-makers' 
union  and  for  many  years  later  destined  to  play 
a  leading  part  in  many  American  Jewish  activi- 
ties as  well  as  in  the  civic  and  educational  affairs 
of  New  York. 

The  success  of  the  cloak-makers'  union  embold- 
ened the  workers  in  the  other  clothing  industries 
to  unite  and  go  on  strike  for  better  living  and 
working  conditions.  Soon  trade-unionism  spread 
to  most  other  industries,  in  course  of  time  lead- 
ing to  the  formation  in  New  York  of  a  federa- 
tion of  unions  under  the  name  of  "The  United 
Hebrew  Trades."  With  the  growth  of  the  Yid- 
dish press,  the  Hebrew-American  Typographical 
Union  came  into  existence,  soon  becoming  a  part 
of  the  International  Typographical  Union.  Even 


AMERICA  305 

the  Yiddish  theatre  actors,  from  the  stars  to  the 
minor  stage  workers,  combined  into  a  union.  The 
Jewish  masses  became  aware  of  the  strength  and 
benefit  which  organization  spells,  and  exerted  their 
energies  in  that  direction  to  the  fullest  extent. 
The  leaders  that  arose  from  their  midst  skillfully 
manoeuvred  this  prevailing  passion,  steering  it  in 
the  channel  of  Socialism.  In  Russia  Socialism 
had  been  the  favorite  doctrine  of  the  intellectuals, 
and  when  many  of  these  settled  in  America  they 
made  it  the  rallying-cry  of  the  masses.  A  number 
of  Yiddish  periodicals  made  their  appearance,  be- 
ginning with  the  weekly  "Arbeiter-Zeitung"  and 
the  daily  "Abendblatt"  which  ceased  publication 
after  a  while,  and  continuing  with  the  monthly 
"Zukunft"  and  the  daily  "Forwaerts"  which  are 
still  in  existence.  While  doing  much  to  educate  the 
people  the  partisan  spirit  of  these  publications  of- 
ten outran  their  discretion  from  the  standpoint 
of  both  their  Jewishness  and  their  Americanism. 
M.  Winchevsky,  an  able  poet  and  prose  writer, 
Abraham  Cahan,  a  clever  journalist  and  novelist, 
who  writes  successfully  in  English  as  in  Yiddish, 
Morris  Hillquit,  a  noted  lawyer,  author  of  "The 
History  of  Socialism  in  the  United  States"  (1903), 
and  Myer  London,  who  is  now  the  only  Socialist 
representative  in  the  United  States  Congress,  be- 
came the  leading  exponents  of  the  movement 
among  the  Yiddish-speaking  masses  in  America. 
From  New  York  Jewish  propagandists  of  Social- 
ism soon  spread  to  other  industrial  centres  where 
they  kept  up  the  agitation  often  succeeding  in  in- 
fluencing the  results  of  municipal  elections  by  the 
votes  of  their  followers.  The  extent  of  Socialism's 
influences  upon  the  Yiddish-speaking  masses  of 
New  York  and  other  cities  is  evidenced  by  the 
large  vote  given  to  Myer  London  when  he  ran  for- 
Congress  in  1914  and  1916,  and  by  the  enormous 


306  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

circulation    enjoyed    by    the    daily    "Forwaerts," 
which  is  said  to  exceed  200,000. 

An  even  greater  measure  of  success  attended 
the  Russian  Jew  in  the  professional  world,  and  in 
the  domain  of  science  and  education.  An  intel- 
lectualist  by  nature,  as  the  result  of  many  cen- 
turies of  physical  repression  in  which  his  mind 
alone  was  allowed  the  free  exercise  of  its  powers, 
the  Jew  who  in  Russia  was  excluded  from  all 
educational  opportunities,  found  in  America  all  the 
avenues  of  higher  learning  free  and  open  to  him, 
and  he  was  quick  to  avail  himself  of  the  new  con- 
ditions. Soon  his  boys  and  girls  thronged  the 
high  schools,  colleges  and  universities,  showing 
unusual  aptitude  for  learning  and  graduating  with 
distinguished  honors.  At  a  considerable  self-de- 
nial, only  too  often  bordering  on  the  impossible, 
the  poorest  of  Jewish  fathers  and  mothers  stinted 
themselves  in  every  imaginable  way  in  order  to 
afford  their  children  those  chances  in  life  of 
which  they  had  themselves,  by  the  exigencies  of  a 
cruel  order  of  things,  been  deprived.  Of  the  ef- 
fect of  the  new  American  order  upon  the  Russo- 
Jewish  child  Mary  Antin  gives  a  touching  account 
in  her  "Promised  Land."  She  says :  "Before  books 
came  into  my  life,  I  was  given  to  star-gazing  and 
day-dreaming.  When  books  were  given  me,  I 
fell  upon  them  as  a  glutton  pounces  on  his  meat 
after  a  period  of  enforced  starvation.  I  lived 
with  my  nose  in  a  book,  and  took  no  notice  of  the 
alternations  of  the  sun  and  the  stars."  Many  of 
these  boys  and  girls  are  now  filling  professorships 
at  the  leading  American  universities,  or  are  lead- 
ers in  the  professions  they  have  entered  upon. 
Jewish  young  men  and  women  constitute  the 
greater  number  of  the  teachers  in  the  public 
schools  of  New  York.  They  are  quickly  making 
their  way  into  politics  and  many  municipal,  State 


AMERICA  307 

or  Federal  offices,  elective  and  appointive,  are  held 
by  them.  A  young  Russian  Jewish  scholar,  Dr. 
Schaefer,  has  succeeded  the  noted  Professor 
Royce  as  head  of  the  philosophical  department  at 
Harvard  where  another  Russian  Jew,  Leo  Wien- 
er, has  for  many  years  been  the  occupant  of  the 
chair  of  Slavonic  languages  and  literatures  and 
where  his  son,  Norman  Wiener,  is  now  profes- 
sor of  mathematics.  Dr.  Max  Margolis  (b.  Me- 
retz,  Gov.  of  Vilna,  1866),  now  of  Dropsic  Col- 
lege at  Philadelphia,  has  for  many  years  filled  the 
chair  of  Semitics  at  the  University  of  California, 
and  a  similar  position  is  now  held  by  Prof.  Israel 
Shapiro  at  the  university  at  Washington,  D.  C. 
In  the  medical  profession,  too,  the  Russian  Jew 
has  made  rapid  headway.  Dr.  Max  Einhorn,  a 
native  of  Grodno  (b.  1862)  and  at  one  time  as- 
sistant to  Professor  Ewald  in  Berlin,  became  an 
authority  on  diseases  of  the  stomach  and  intes- 
tines for  which  subject  he  was  appointed  profes- 
sor at  the  New  York  Post  Graduate  Medical 
School.  He  invented  many  of  the  new  instru- 
ments and  apparatus  now  in  use  throughout  the 
medical  world,  while  his  published  writings  cover 
nearly  the  entire  range  of  stomach  pathology.  In 
the  very  domain  of  Reform  Judaism  which  was 
the  exclusive  concern  of  the  German  Jew  before 
1 88 1,  the  Russian  Jew  is  fast  gaining  recognition, 
and  the  two  most  prominent  pulpits  in  New  York, 
those  of  Beth  El  and  Emanu-El,  are  occupied  by 
Samuel  Schulman  (b.  Kalvarie,  1865)  and  Hyman 
G.  Enelow  (b.  1876),  respectively. 

The  extent  of  the  intellectual  progress  made  by 
the  Russian  Jew  in  the  United  States  may  be 
gauged  from  his  very  considerable  contribution  to 
the  American  literature  of  the  last  three  decades. 
Mention  has  already  been  made  of  Michael  Heil- 
prin's  literary  activities.  He  was  a  valuable  con- 


308  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

tributor  to  "The  Nation,"  a  collaborator  in  "Ap- 
pleton's  New  American  Cyclopedia,"  and  is  the 
author  of  "The  Historical  Poetry  of  the  Ancient 
Hebrews"  (2  vols.,  New  York,  1879-1880)  and  of 
a  posthumous  publication  in  German,  "Bibelkri- 
tische  Notizen"  (Baltimore,  1893,  with  a  preface 
by  Rabbi  B.  Szold).  Abraham  Cahan  (b.  Podbe- 
rezhye,  Vilna,  1860),  who  ranks  foremost  as  a  So- 
cialistic labor  leader  in  America,  was  for  a  num- 
ber of  years  connected  with  several  of  the  leading 
dailies  of  New  York,  and  has  also  written  a  num- 
ber of  forceful  descriptive  novels,  dealing  with 
Russian  Jewish  immigrant  life  in  America  and 
with  the  revolutionary  movement  in  Russia,  no- 
tably his  "Yekl"  (New  York,  1896)  which  won  the 
praise  of  Wm.  D.  Howells;  "The  Imported  Bride- 
groom, and  Other  Stories"  (Boston,  1898),  "The 
White  Terror  and  the  Red"  (New  York,  1905) 
and  "The  Rise  of  David  Levinsky"  (New  York, 
1917).  Ezra  Brudno  (b.  1877)  is  the  author  of 
three  novels  dealing  with  Jewish  life  in  Russia 
and  America,  "The  Fugitive"  (New  York,  1904), 
"The  Little  Conscript"  (1905),  and  "The  Tether" 
(Philadelphia,  1908).  Bernard  G.  Richards  won 
recognition  by  his  "Discourses  of  Keidansky."  Eze- 
kiel  Leavitt,  the  polyglot  poet,  who  in  Russia  wrote 
in  both  Russian  and  Hebrew,  in  America  quickly 
adapted  his  muse  to  English  verse,  and  attracted 
attention  by  his  collection  of  poems  under  the  title 
"Songs  of  Grief  and  Gladness."  A  number  of 
forceful  short  stories  were  written  by  Mary  Finn 
Scott,  while  Rose  Strunsky  Walling  has  writ- 
ten on  serious  topics  and  collaborated  with 
Jack  London  in  one  of  his  books.  Herman  Bern- 
stein, the  present  editor  of  "The  American 
Hebrew,"  at  one  time  attempted  fiction,  but  proved 
more  successful  as  a  journalist  and  as  a  travelling 
correspondent  for  a  few  of  New  York's  leading 


AMERICA  309 

newspapers.    Montague  Glass,  while  representing 
the    second    generation    of    immigrant    Israel    in 
America,  is  decidedly  a  product  of  the  ghetto.   He 
gained  lasting  fame  as  the  creator  of  the  "Potash 
and  Perlmutter"  stories.    But  by  far  the  most  bril- 
liant of  literary  gifts  among  these  immigrants  is 
that  possessed  by  Mary  Antin  (b.  Polotsk,  1885) 
who,  as  she  herself  states  it,  "was  born  with  a 
pen  in  my  hand."     While  yet  a  child  of  twelve 
she  showed  the  promise  of  her  later  and  maturer 
years  by  writing  a  delightful  account  in  Yiddish 
of  her  experiences  while  on  her  way,  with  her 
mother,   to   America.     This  she  two  years  later 
translated   into   English   and   under   the   title   of 
"From  Polotsk  to  Boston"  it  was  published  in  book 
form  with  an  introduction  by  Zangwill   (Boston, 
1898).     In  Boston  she  received  all  the  advantages 
of  an  American  education,  was  befriended  by  Dr. 
Edward  Everett  Hale,  and  acquired  a  clear  and 
forceful  style  in  the  language  she  was  to  employ 
as  the  vehicle  of  her  writings.     She  became  a  con- 
tributor to  the  "Atlantic  Monthly"  and  other  mag- 
azines, and  in  1912  published  her  autobiography, 
"The  Promised  Land"    (Boston),  which  was  re- 
ceived with  great  favor  by  the  literary  critics  and 
the  general  public  and  established  her  place  among 
the  leading  American  writers  of  the  present  day. 
The  homely  yet  fascinating  aspects  of  Russian- 
Jewish   life   in   America   have    furnished   inspira- 
tion   also    to    several    writers    of    German-Jewish 
stock  for  a  number  of  stories  from  the  life  of  the 
ghetto.      Emma   Wolf,    Isaac   K.    Friedman,    and 
more  especially  Martha  Wolfenstein,  have  writ- 
ten sympathetically  of  the  humble  denizens  of  the 
Jewish  quarter.     Even  Christian  writers  were  in- 
fluenced by  the  new  migration  to  go  to  the  ghetto 
for  their  themes,  Hutchins  Hapgood  in  his  "Spirit 
of    the    Ghetto,"    "Myra    Kelly"    in    her    clever 


3IO  HISTORY   OF   THE    JEWS 

sketches  of  Jewish  child-life  as  she  saw  it  through 
her  work  as  a  New  York  school-teacher,  while 
Harold  Frederick  was  moved  to  write  his  "New 
Exodus"  and  the  Reverend  Madison  C.  Peters,  a 
Christian  minister,  owing  to  the  same  influence, 
found  the  American  Jews  of  sufficient  interest 
and  importance  to  write  several  volumes  on  the 
history  of  the  Jews  in  America  and  on  the  Tal- 
mud. 

Yet  more  important  than  all  this  was  the  im- 
petus the  presence  of  the  large  Russian  Jewish 
colony  lent  toward  the  conservation  and  extension 
of  Jewish  learning  in  America.  Until  the  coming 
of  these  immigrants,  Jewish,  and  more  especially 
Hebraic  knowledge,  had  been  confined  to  a  small 
group  of  rabbis  and  a  very  few  erudite  laymen 
like  Lewis  N.  Dembitz.  The  German-American 
rabbis  of  the  Reform  school  could  boast  more  of 
worldly  culture  than  of  Hebrew  learning.  They 
were  orators,  organizers  and  communal  workers 
who  rendered  splendid  service  in  the  work  of  up- 
building the  new  Jewish  life  in  its  American  set- 
ting; in  their  totality  they  represented  very  little 
Jewish  scholarship.  Men  like  Marcus  Jastrow, 
Alexander  Kohut  and  Benjamin  Szold,  who  could 
scarcely  be  accounted  "Reformers,"  were  the  ex- 
ception rather  than  the  rule.  The  establishment 
of  the  rabbinical  schools  at  Cincinnati  and  New 
York  did  not  hold  out  any  promise  of  improve- 
ment in  this  respect,  the  rabbis  of  American 
schooling,  whether  Reform  or  orthodox,  being  on 
the  whole  greatly  inferior  in  learning  to  those  of 
European  training.  The  Russian-Jewish  migra- 
tion changed  the  entire  aspect  of  things,  bringing 
along  in  its  sweep  a  host  of  ready-made  Talmud- 
ists  and  Hebraists  of  note,  many  a  poverty-pinched 
and  sorry-looking  fruit  peddler  or  old-clothes 
huckster  being  but  a  disguised  Ben  Tor  ah  (man 


AMERICA  311 

of  learning)  who  under  more  felicitous  circum- 
stances might  have  been  a  shining  intellectual  lu- 
minary in  his  community.  It  was  not  long  before 
some  of  these  submerged  scholars  attempted  to 
assert  themselves,  despite  their  material  handi- 
caps. Abraham  H.  Rosenberg,  at  one  time  rabbi 
in  the  large  Jewish  community  of  Nikolayev,  while 
working  at  his  printing  press  in  a  dingy  cellar  on 
Canal  Street,  New  York,  found  time  to  write 
many  a  learned  dissertation  and  to  materialize 
his  long-cherished  plan  of  preparing,  in  Hebrew, 
a  highly  informative  encyclopedia  of  the  Bible 
("Ozar  ha-Shemot"),  while  Michael  L.  Rodkinson, 
who  at  one  time  edited  a  Hebrew  paper  in  New 
York,  actually  realized  his  far-flung  ambition  of 
translating  the  Talmud  into  English. 

The  presence  and  activity  of  many  such  men 
in  the  United  States  was  bound  to  react  upon 
the  entire  Jewish  community.  Men  of  wealth 
could  now  more  easily  be  interested  in  cultural 
projects,  and  the  creation  of  a  number  of  im- 
portant agencies  for  the  furtherance  of  Jewish 
learning  was  thus  made  possible.  Most  of  these 
agencies  have  been  called  into  being  within  the 
last  thirty  years.  The  present  "Jewish  Pub- 
lication Society"  was  organized  in  Philadelphia 
in  1888  and  has  since  published  more  than  a 
hundred  volumes,  among  them  such  famous 
works  as  Zangwill's  ghetto  stories,  Schechter's 
"Studies  in  Judaism,"  and  Dubnow's  "History 
of  the  Jews  in  Russia  and  Poland."  The 
"American  Jewish  Historical  Society"  was  found- 
ed in  1892,  headed  by  Oscar  S.  Straus  as  its  first 
president,  while  in  the  following  year  the  Rever- 
end Henry  Berkowitz  of  Philadelphia  organized 
the  "Jewish  Chautauqua  Society"  with  an  ambi- 
tious educational  scheme  patterned  largely  after 
the  Christian  society  by  the  same  name.  In  that 
same  year,  at  the  "World's  Parliament  of  Re- 


312  HISTORY   OF   THE   JEWS 

ligions"  which  was  held  in  Chicago  in  connection 
with  the  "World's  Columbian  Exposition,"  and 
where  Judaism  was  ably  represented  by  Rabbis 
Isaac  Mayer  Wise  and  Emil  G.  Hirsch,  among 
others,  the  Jewish  women  made  use  of  the  oppor- 
tunity to  hold  a  congress  of  their  own  which  re- 
sulted in  the  formation  of  a  permanent  organiza- 
tion known  as  the  "National  Council  of  Jewish 
Women,"  later  to  be  supplemented  by  the  "Fed- 
eration of  Temple  Sisterhoods,"  and  which  in- 
cluded in  its  programme  a  plan  for  home-study  of 
Jewish  history  and  religion.  The  greatest  event 
in  Jewish  intellectual  life  in  America  occurred  in 
1901  when  the  first  of  the  twelve  volumes  of  the 
"Jewish  Encyclopedia"  made  its  appearance  in  New 
York  (Funk  &  Wagnalls).  This  monumental 
work,  the  project  of  which  was  first  born  in  the 
creative  brain  of  Dr.  Isidore  Singer  (b.  Weiss- 
kirchen,  Moravia,  1859)  who  probably  was  influ- 
enced by  Ahad  Haam's  advocacy  in  1894  of  the 
publication  of  a  similar  work  in  Hebrew,  is  doubt- 
less the  most  ambitious  intellectual  enterprise  ever 
undertaken  by  Jews  in  many  a  century,  though 
the  publishers  of  the  work  were  Christians  and 
though  Christian  scholarship  was  liberally  repre- 
sented among  its  hundreds  of  contributors.  An- 
other event  of  great  intellectual  moment  was  the 
publication,  in  1917,  of  a  new  English  translation 
of  the  Bible  prepared  by  a  number  of  American 
Jewish  scholars  representing  both  the  orthodox 
and  Reform  wings.  This  work,  the  only  standard 
American  Jewish  Bible  translation  since  the  pub- 
lication of  Leeser's  version,  was  made  possible 
through  the  generosity  of  Jacob  H.  Schiff  who  do- 
nated to  the  "Jewish  Publication  Society"  fifty 
thousand  dollars  for  this  purpose.  This  same 
prince  of  benefactors  has  since  given  a  like 
amount  for  the  publication  of  a  standard  transla- 


JACOB   H.    SCHIFF 
(b.  1847) 


JEWISH    THEOLOGICAL    SEMINARY,    NEW    YORK 


AMERICA  313 

tion  of  all  of  the  leading  works  in  Hebrew,  an- 
cient, mediaeval  and  modern,  which  is  shortly  to 
appear  under  the  general  title  of  "Library  of  He- 
brew Classics." 

His  coming  over  in  great  numbers  enabled  the 
Russian  Jew  to  transplant  upon  the  soil  of  Amer- 
ica the  many  features  of  his  organized  religious 
and  social  life  in  the  old  world.  The  ghetto  be- 
gan to  bristle  with  synagogues  large  and  small 
and  with  Hebrahs  primarily  organized  for  wor- 
ship and  burial  purposes  but  in  reality  answering 
the  social  and  fraternal  cravings  of  men  and 
women  cast  out  from  their  native  climes  and  not 
yet  inured  to  the  life  of  their  new  surroundings. 
If  the  Reform  movement  in  America  was  a  Ger- 
man creation,  and  the  work  of  German-Jewish 
pioneers,  the  Orthodoxy  which  since  1881  began 
to  assert  itself  in  America  and  to  continue  with 
ever  louder  voice  to  claim  the  attention  of  the 
world,  was  Russian  not  merely  in  its  mode  of 
worship  but  in  the  scope  and  method  of  its  or- 
ganization and  in  the  spirit  which  showed  its  con- 
ception of  the  fitness  of  things.  Both  of  them 
erred  on  the  side  of  overestimation  of  their  worth 
for  Judaism.  The  Reform  of  the  German  Jew 
was,  largely,  a  concession  to  the  demands  of  the 
new  conditions  and  a  deference  for  the  opinion  of 
the  world.  The  Orthodoxy  of  the  Russian  Jew 
was,  per  se,  an  emphatic  denial  of  all  such  con- 
siderations. Not  understanding,  or  caring  to  un- 
derstand, the  general  tendencies  of  the  day,  not 
foresighted  enough  to  realize  the  pressing  reli- 
gious needs  of  his  children,  more  pressing  in  the 
free  environment  of  America  than  in  the  restrict- 
ed atmosphere  of  old  Russia,  he  was  contented 
to  begin  his  religious  life  in  the  New  World 
where  he  had  left  it  off  in  the  old,  with  a  mini- 
mum of  effort  in  the  direction  of  improvement, 


314  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

and  he  accordingly  set  himself  to  the  task  of 
duplicating  Russian  Orthodoxy  in  America.  To 
him  method  and  doctrine  were  synonymous,  and 
to  infringe  upon  the  one  meant  to  undermine  the 
other.  His  Shule  and  his  Talmud  Torah  were 
little  different  in  America  from  similar  institu- 
tions in  Russia,  only  too  often  being  marked  by 
a  disorderliness  which  was  the  result  of  ignorance 
rather  than  willful  indifference.  It  was  not  long, 
however,  before  even  the  Russian  immigrant  be- 
gan to  feel  the  urgent  need  of  adaptation  to  the 
new  and  changed  environment.  Gradually,  may- 
hap unconsciously,  the  leaven  of  Americanism  be- 
gan to  work  in  the  souls  of  the  newcomers,  and 
as  their  children  grew  older  it  became  evident 
that  the  old  order  of  things  must  give  way  before 
the  inroads  of  a  new  and  better — or  at  least  more 
naturally  American — system.  There  is  no  more 
striking  contrast  than  that  presented  by  the  Rus- 
sian Orthodoxy  of  1917 — in  many  of  the  old  es- 
tablished congregations — to  that  of  the  first  im- 
migrant religious  organizations  of  the  early 
eighties. 

But  before  reaching  its  present  phase  of  devel- 
opment American-Russian  Orthodoxy  has  had  to 
pass  through  a  number  of  experimental  stages. 
Doubtless  it  was  to  a  considerable  degree  influenced 
by  the  greater  orderliness  and  decorum  which  pre- 
vailed in  a  few  of  the  German  and  Hungarian 
orthodox  congregations  whose  organization  an- 
tedated their  coming,  if  not  by  the  old  and  aristo- 
cratic Portuguese  temples  whose  atmosphere  of 
exclusiveness  and  super-refinement  was  rather  re- 
pellant  to  the  thoroughly  and  perhaps  overly- 
democratic  Russian  Jew.  The  spirit  of  rebellion 
against  Reform  which  continued  to  manifest  itself 
with  ever  greater  vehemence  since  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  Union  of  American  Hebrew  con- 


RABBI  JACOB  JOSEPH 
(1848-1902) 


AMERICA  315 

gregations  and  the  founding  of  the  Hebrew 
Union  College,  was  beginning  to  assume  a 
more  definite  phase  in  the  early  eighties: 
In  1883,  in  connection  with  the  gradua- 
tion of  the  first  class  of  rabbis  from  the 
Hebrew  Union  College,  when  food  forbidden  by 
the  dietary  laws  was  served  at  the  banquet  given 
on  that  occasion,  a  final  break  between  the  Reform 
and  the  more  pronounced  orthodox  elements  of 
the  country  became  inevitable  and,  under  the  lead- 
ership of  the  late  Sabato  Morais  (Leghorn,  Italy, 
i823-Philadelphia,  1897)  steps  were  taken  to  es- 
tablish a  theological  school  for  the  training  of 
rabbis  in  the  spirit  of  traditional  Judaism.  The 
realization  of  this  plan  took  place  in  1886  when 
the  Jewish  Theological  Seminary  was  opened  in 
the  city  of  New  York  with  Dr.  Morais  as  presi- 
dent of  the  faculty  and  Professor  of  Bible,  and 
Dr.  Alexander  Kohut  (Felegyhaza,  Hungary, 
i842-New  York,  1894)  as  professor  of  Talmud. 
This  occurrence  wras  not  without  its  effect  upon 
the  Russian  immigrants  who  were  further  encour- 
aged to  greater  progress  and  a  more  firmly  or- 
ganized religious  life  by  the  Yiddish  press,  led  by 
the  "Jewish  Gazette"  and  the  "Volksadvokat."  In 
1888  a  number  of  congregations  in  New  York 
united  for  the  purpose  of  securing  a  prominent 
Russian  rabbi  for  the  newly  created  office  of 
"Chief  Rabbi"  of  the  Russian-orthodox  commu- 
nities. Their  choice  fell  upon  Rabbi  Jacob  Jo- 
seph (Krozhe,  Kovno,  i848-New  York,  1902),  of 
Vilna  who  filled  this  position  for  fourteen  years, 
until  his  death.  The  coming  to  New  York  of 
Rabbi  Bernard  Drachman  (b.  New  York,  1861) 
in  1887  and  of  Rabbi  Philip  Klein  (b.  Baraczka, 
Hungary,  1848)  in  1890,  as  well  as  the  highly 
meritorious  activities  among  the  immigrants  of 
Dr.  Adolph  M.  Radin  (Neustadt-Schirwindt, 


HISTORY   OF   THE   JEWS 

i848-New  York,  1909)  and  of  Harris  Masliansky 
(b.  Slutsk,  1856),  did  much  to  place  Russian 
Orthodoxy  in  America  under  more  favorable  con- 
ditions. It  was  many  years,  however,  before  this 
Orthodoxy  was  to  become  as  firmly  intrenched  as 
it  is  now,  when  it  boasts  of  a  number  of  paro- 
chial Hebrew  schools,  both  elementary  and  high, 
and  of  a  special  institute  for  the  training  of  ortho- 
dox rabbis,  located  in  New  York  under  the  name 
of  "The  Rabbinical  College  of  America."  To-day 
the  Russian  Jews  are  in  possession  of  a  number 
of  stately  synagogues  which  for  costliness  and 
beauty  are  in  no  way  inferior  to  the  Reform  tem- 
ples of  the  German  Jews;  their  services  are 
more  orderly  though  not  less  traditional, 
with  English  prayers  and  English  sermons 
more  and  more  crowding  the  Hebrew  and  the 
Yiddish;  their  Talmud  Torahs  are  housed  in  large 
and  airy  buildings  with  a  systematic  curriculum 
and  efficient  teaching  staffs;  while  many  of  their 
charitable  institutions  are  admirable  for  their 
methods  of  administration  and  the  liberality  with 
which  they  are  supported.  In  every  way  the  Rus- 
sian Jew  is  proving  that  he  has  not  lived  in  the 
United  States  for  four  decades  in  vain,  but  that 
he  has  been  an  apt  pupil  in  acquiring  an  Amer- 
icanism of  a  higher  and  nobler  order. 

With  the  improvement  of  his  material  condi- 
tion, the  Russian  Jew  was  enabled  to  pay  greater 
attention  to  his  Jewish  intellectual  needs.  From 
the  old  world  he  brought  with  him  the  notion  that 
Jewish  culture  is  synonymous  with  Hebrew 
thought  and  is  best  expressed  through  the  medium 
of  Hebrew.  Hence  he  set  himself  early  to  the 
work  of  reviving  the  Hebrew  language  as  a  liter- 
ary vehicle  and  thus  follow  in  the  foot-steps  of 
the  European  intellectuals  (Maskilim).  As  early 
as  1871  Hirsch  Bernstein  (died  in  1907)  began 


RABBI  ADOLPH  M.  RADIN 
(1848-1909) 


AMERICA  317 

the  publication  in  New  York  of  his  weekly 
"Hazophe  b'Erez  ha-Hadasha,"  assisted  by  M. 
Jalomstein,  a  noted  Hebrew  journalist,  which  con- 
tinued with  a  few  interruptions  until  1877.  In 
1880  a  society  of  accomplished  Hebraists  and  Tal- 
mudic  scholars  attempted  the  publication  of  a 
magazine  called  "Ha-Measeph  b'Erez  ha- 
Hadasha,"  of  which  only  one  number  appeared. 
Occasionally  books  on  a  variety  of  subjects,  writ- 
ten in  Biblical  or  modern  Hebrew,  would  leave 
the  printing  press,  such  as  the  book  on  "Jews  and 
Judaism"  in  New  York,  by  Moses  Weinberger, 
Joseph  S.  Silberstein's  theologico-philosophical 
studies,  "Ha-Dat  v'ha-Torah, — M.  Rabbinovich's 
strictures  of  Jewish  Reform  in  "Ha-Mahanayim," 
and  Dr.  Szold's  interesting  and  scholarly  commen- 
tary on  the  book  of  Job.  Wolf  Schur  (Outian, 
i844-Chicago,  1910)  began  the  publication  of  his 
weekly  "Ha-Pisgah"  in  1888  in  Baltimore,  and  the 
year  following  Ephraim  Deinard  (b.  Shossmaken, 
Courland,  1846)  started  his  weekly  "Ha-Leomi" 
in  New  York.  The  same  year  also  saw  the  ap- 
pearance in  Chicago  of  a  new  Hebrew  monthly 
"Keren  Or"  (A  Ray  of  Light)  which  did  not  sur- 
vive its  second  number.  The  American  atmos- 
phere was  not  propitious  for  the  growth  of  He- 
brew literature  and  these  periodicals  were  all 
short-lived.  Not  discouraged  by  their  failures 
these  Russian  intellectuals  continued  their  efforts 
in  behalf  of  their  favorite  literature.  In  1892 
Gerson  Rosenzweig  (Byelostok,  i86i-New  York, 
1914)  supported  by  K.  H.  Sarasohn,  began  his 
weekly  "Ha-Ibri,"  assisted,  among  others,  by  G. 
Selikovitsch,  a  fine  Hebrew  stylist,  who  writes 
mainly  for  the  Yiddish  press,  while  three  years 
later  a  society  of  scholars,  headed  by  A.  D. 
Dobsevage,  A.  H.  Rosenberg,  J.  D.  Eisenstein, 
and  Herman  Rosenthal  began  issuing  the  "Ner 


3l8  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

ha-Maarabi"  (Western  Light)  which  appeared 
with  great  irregularity  and  subsequently  passed 
into  the  hands  of  S.  B.  Schwarzberg,  who 
published  only  four  numbers  of  it.  Again,  and 
with  no  better  success,  Rosenzweig  attempted  the 
publication  of  a  monthly,  "Kadimah,"  and  Herman 
Rosenthal  that  of  "Ha-Modiya  le-Hadashim"  (The 
Monthly  Intelligencer).  At  the  same  time  there 
appeared  several  large  works  in  Hebrew,  like  M. 
Jalomstein's  attempt  at  a  history  of  the  United 
States,  W.  Schur's  historico-theological  studies 
entitled  "Nezah  Yisroel"  and  A.  H.  Rosen- 
berg's Biblical  encyclopedia  "Ozar  ha-Shemot." 
Isaac  Rabbinovich  (Kovno,  i846-New  York, 
1900),  and  Menahem  M.  Dolitsky  (b.  Byelostok, 
1856)  published  their  volumes  of  national  He- 
brew poems,  while  J.  D.  Eisenstein  was  already 
planning  his  Hebrew  Encyclopedia  "Ozar  Yis- 
roel." To  this  period  belongs  also  Joseph  Gabrie- 
low,  who  at  one  time  edited  in  New  York  a 
weekly,  "Ha-Z'man,"  and  many  years  later  pub- 
lished a  popular  encyclopedia  of  Jewish  ethics 
under  the  name  "Ozar  ha-Midot."  The  Hebrew 
language  in  America  was,  however,  to  continue 
reaping  a  harvest  of  failure  until  the  second 
decade  of  the  twentieth  century,  when  new  and 
unexpected  conditions  caused  the  situation  to 
change  for  the  better. 

The  reason  for  the  repeated  failure  of  the  He- 
brew language  and  literature  to  secure  a  foot- 
hold in  America  is  furnished  in  the  fact  that  a 
thorough  training  in  Hebrew  is  accessible  to  only 
a  comparatively  small  class  of  Jews,  remaining 
out  of  the  reach  of  the  masses,  to  whom,  as  in 
Russia,  it  perforce  remained  a  prohibitive  luxury. 
And  this  very  circumstance  will  explain  the  won- 
derful growth  and  prosperity  of  the  Yiddish  litera- 
ture and  the  Yiddish  theatre  in  America.  It  was 


AMERICA  319 

only  natural  that  the  language  used  by  millions  of 
men  and  women  as  their  daily  medium  of  expres- 
sion should  find  unlimited  support  among  these 
people  for  its  literary  and  histrionic  productions. 
Yiddish  journalism  made  its  appearance  in  the 
United  States  even  before  the  influx  en  masse  of 
the  Russian  Jews  began,  when  K.  H.  Sarasohn  of 
New  York  (1837-1905)  began  in  1874  the  publi- 
cation of  his  weekly  "Juedische  Gazetten,"  which  is 
still  in  existence.  This  was  followed  by  another 
weekly  in  Chicago,  the  "Israelitische  Presse,"  which 
was  started  in  1876  together  with  a  Hebrew  sup- 
plement called  "Hekhal  ha-Ibriyah."  With  the  ar- 
rival of  large  numbers  of  immigrants  a  Yiddish 
daily  press  was  made  possible,  and  there  sprang 
up  in  New  York  a  number  of  dailies,  the  fore- 
most among  which  were  the  "Juedisches  Tageblatt" 
and  the  "Taeglicher  Herold"  (since  1891),  later  to 
be  followed  by  the  "Wahrheit"  and  the  "Tag"  while 
other  dailies  appeared  also  in  other  cities,  notably 
in  Chicago,  where  the  "Courier"  and  the  "Record" 
began  to  appear.  We  have  already  mentioned  the 
Yiddish  Socialistic  press  which  headed  by  the  "For- 
waerts"  in  New  York  is  probably  the  most  widely 
read  of  the  Jewish  masses.  There  is  also  an  an- 
archistic organ,  the"FreieArbeiter  Stimme."  There 
has  been  a  large  crop  of  weeklies  and  monthlies, 
both  serious  and  humorous,  many  of  which  are 
still  being  published,  the  most  notable  of  these 
being  the  "Illustrierte  Juedische  Zeitung"  founded 
by  Abraham  Goldfaden,  "Zukunft"  (Socialistic), 
and  "Der  Juedischer  Puck,"  by  N.  M.  Schaikewitz. 
For  the  past  twenty  years  H.  Minikes  of  New 
York  has  been  publishing  "Yom-Tob  Blaetter,"  in 
which  appeared  many  choice  articles  from  the  pen 
of  the  best  Yiddish  writers  of  Europe  and 
America. 

Alongside  of  the  periodical  press  there  grew  up 


32O  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

a  voluminous  scientific  and  polite  literature,  the 
work  of  men  whose  talent  was  developed  in 
America  or  had  matured  while  yet  in  Europe.  To 
the  latter  class  belong  the  veterans  of  Yiddish 
literature  in  Europe:  N.  M.  Scheikevitsch,  the 
prolific  novelist,  who  scored  his  greatest  literary 
success  in  America  by  the  comedies  he  wrote  for 
the  Yiddish  stage,  M.  Seifert,  who  is  a  very  fac- 
ile writer,  and  at  the  age  of  71  is  to-day  still 
supplying  the  Yiddish  papers  with  lengthy  ro- 
mances; Eliakim  Zunser  (Vilna,  i845-New  York, 
I9I3)?  the  one-time  wedding  bard  who  blossomed 
out  into  a  very  popular  author  of  folk-songs,  and 
Abraham  Goldfaden  (Starokonstantinov,  1840- 
New  York,  1908),  the  noted  playwright  and 
father  of  the  Yiddish  stage,  who  .was  the  first  to 
attempt  the  publication  of  an  illustrated  Yiddish 
weekly  in  America.  But  by  far  greater  was  the 
number  of  writers  who  sprang  up  on  American 
soil  whether  their  hankering  for  a  literary  career 
came  to  them  in  Europe  or  in  America.  While 
Abner  Tannenbaum  (Schirwind,  E.  Prussia,  1848- 
New  York,  1913)  gave  himself  to  acquainting  the 
public  with  the  best  French  and  German  novels 
and  was  popularizing  science  by  means  of  trans- 
lations of  standard  works,  while  "Philip  Krantz," 
which  is  the  nom  de  plume  of  Jacob  Rombro,  au- 
thor of  many  works  on  science  and  history, 
notably  his  "Kulturgeschichte"  and  "Gantz 
Amerika,"  was  successfully  spreading  enlighten- 
ment in  like  manner,  and  Alexander  Harkavy 
wrote  a  number  of  educational  works,  there  came 
upon  the  scene  a  class  of  short-story  writers  who 
early  gave  promise  of  unusual  talent,  headed  by  J. 
Goido,  writing  under  the  pseudonym  of  "B. 
Gorin,"  Leon  Kobrin  and  Israel  Hurewitz,  whose 
pen  name  is  "Z.  Libin."  Though  possessed  of 
much  intrinsic  merit,  their  sketches  are  often 


ABRAHAM  GOLDFADEN 
(1840-1908) 


AMERICA  321 

over-realistic  and  only  too  frequently  border  on 
the  decadent.  While  writing  of  Jewish  life  they 
plainly  show  the  influence  of  the  realistic  French 
and  Russian  schools.  A  notable  place  in  this 
literature  is  that  of  M.  Winchevsky  (b.  Yanovo, 
Kovno,  1856),  "The  Crazy  Philosopher,"  popu- 
larly referred  to  as  the  "Grandfather  of  Jewish 
Socialism,"  who  is  the  author  of  much  noble 
verse  and  of  still  finer  prose,  and  who  has  been 
very  productive  as  a  writer  of  stories  and  sketches 
and  as  a  translator  of  several  standard  novels  from 
the  French  and  the  Russian.  In  passing  judg- 
ment on  the  work  of  these  and  other  writers  in 
America,  Prof.  Wiener,  in  his  history  of  the 
Yiddish  literature,  as  far  back  as  1898  pointed 
out  their  inferiority,  as  a  class,  to  their  Yiddish 
contemporaries  in  Russia.  "There  has  not,"  says 
he,  "arisen  in  America  any  author  who  has  shown 
the  same  degree  of  originality  as  those  of  the 
mother  country,  even  though  they  frequently  sur- 
pass them  in  regularity  of  structure,  and  in  the 
fund  of  information  they  possess.  Among  the 
large  number  of  writers  in  New  York  who  have 
contributed  to  the  literature,  it  can  hardly  be  said 
that  any  individual  style  has  been  developed. 
They  resemble  each  other  very  much,  both  in  the 
manner  of  their  composition,  and  the  subjects 
they  treat.  Nor  could  it  be  otherwise.  They 
nearly  all  are  busy  popularizing  science  in  one 
way  or  other,  or  they  write  novels  from  the  life 
of  the  Jewish  community  which,  in  the  less  than 
two  decades  of  its  existence,  has  not  developed, 
as  yet,  many  new  characteristics.  They  imitate 
Russian  models  for  their  stories  and  novels, 
mainly  Chekhow.  They  are  all  of  them  realists, 
and  some  have  carried  their  realism  to  the  utmost 
extent." 

Yet  if  this  stricture  is  justly  applicable  to  the 


322  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

prose  writers,  it  falls  beyond  the  mark  in  the  case 
of  the  Yiddish  poets  of  whom  America  has  pro- 
duced a  considerable  number.  Prose,  when  worked 
at  as  a  profession  and  for  gain,  as  is  the  case 
with  nearly  every  Yiddish  writer  in  America,  is 
subject  to  the  pitfalls  of  haste  when  little  oppor- 
tunity is  afforded  for  the  development  of  diction 
or  of  originality  in  creation.  This  is  only  to  a 
less  degree  true  of  "Tashrak"  (I.  Zevin),  who  is 
possessed  of  considerable  talent  as  a  Jewish  hu- 
morist. Poetry,  at  least  when  written  in  Yiddish, 
is  unavailable  as  a  means  of  earning  a  livelihood, 
and  they  who  still  resort  to  it  in  spite  of  this,  do 
so  because  driven  to  it  by  the  force  of  an  inborn 
gift.  Hence  we  find  that  the  American  Ghetto 
has  produced  better  poets  than  prose  writers. 
These  poets,  too,  are  more  natural  and  self- 
true  and  less  given  to  adaptation  and  imitation.  Of 
the  lesser  lights,  A.  M.  Sharkansky  (died  in  New 
York  in  1905)  stands  out  prominently  with  his 
"Yiddishe  Melodien,"  which  created  a  considerable 
stir  in  the  Yiddish  world  at  the  time  of  its  pub- 
lication. In  Cincinnati,  D.  Greenberg  (died  in 
1917),  under  the  name  of  "Ben  Yishai,"  wrote 
for  many  years  simple  yet  touching  verse  on  Jew- 
ish national  themes.  Among  the  singers  on  more 
radical  themes  are  David  Edelstadt  (1866-1892) 
and  the  aforementioned  Morris  Winchevsky, 
though  the  latter  writes  in  a  more  conservative 
strain  even  as  his  poetry  is  of  a  superior  order. 
Both  of  them,  however,  are  moved  to  sing,  or, 
rather,  to  weep,  on  the  social  inequalities  and  the 
economic  injustice  of  the  world,  and  to  breathe 
the  hope  oi"  a  world  transformed  through  the 
coming  of  the  social  revolution.  Winchevsky  has 
also  produced  a  fine  translation  of  Thomas  Hood's 
"Song  of  the  Shirt." 

Much  superior  to  any  of  these  is  Morris  Rosen- 


MORRIS   ROSENFELD 


AMERICA  323 

feld  (b.  Boksha,  Suwalki,  1862),  who  is  the  first 
American  Yiddish  poet  whose  works  have  been 
translated  into  other  languages  by  prominent  men 
of  letters  (English  by  Leo  Wiener  and  German 
by  Berthold  Feiwel,  besides  translations  into  Rou- 
manian, Polish,  Hungarian  and  Bohemian).  A 
poet  of  the  masses  and  himself  a  product  and  a 
victim  of  the  sweating  system,  Rosenfeld,  too,  is 
revolutionary  in  the  theme  and  tenor  of  his  song, 
at  the  same  time  he  is  also  nationalistically  Jew- 
ish and  his  attendance  at  one  of  the  Zionist  con- 
gresses shows  him  to  be  at  least  passively  inter- 
ested in  that  movement.  Reared  in  the  Jewish 
traditional  spirit,  Rosenfeld  draws  much  of  his 
inspiration  from  the  old  literary  sources,  but  for 
form  and  versification  he  is  indebted  to  the  Eng- 
lish and  German  masters,  especially  to  Heine  and 
Schiller.  At  the  same  time  he  is  uniquely  orig- 
inal in  the  treatment  of  his  subjects  and  in  the 
pathos  and  imagery  with  which  his  writings 
abound.  His  "Liederbuch"  (New  York,  1897)  was 
the  sensation  of  the  day  in  Yiddish  literary 
circles,  and  its  translation  into  English  by  Pro- 
fessor Wiener  ("Songs  from  the  Ghetto/'  Boston, 
1899),  introduced  him  to  the  large  non-Jewish 
world,  several  of  the  more  prominent  American 
universities  inviting  him  to  give  readings  of  his 
poems.  Rosenfeld  has  probably  done  more  than 
any  other  Yiddish  writer  to  bring  home  to  the 
American  reading  world  the  economic  tragedy  as 
well  as  the  spiritual  beauty  of  the  lowly  and  dingy 
ghetto. 

Yet  even  Rosenfeld,  though  for  some  years  su- 
preme in  American  Yiddish  literature,  has  found 
his  master  and  superior  in  "Yehoash"  (Solomon 
Bloomgarden,  b.  '  Wirballen,  1870).  Less  well- 
known  to  the  outside  world,  "Yehoash"  has  for 
the  last  ten  years  come  forward  as  a  most  force- 


324  HISTORY    OF   THE    JEWS 

ful  exponent  in  verse  of  much  that  is  best  in 
Jewish  thought  and  feeling,  and  may  well  be  con- 
sidered the  greatest  lyric  poet  the  Yiddish  has  yet 
produced.  His  is  a  more  Jewishly  saturated  muse 
than  Rosenfeld's,  and  where  the  latter  is  moved 
to  sing  by  the  mere  exigencies  of  fate,  by  the 
political  tragedies  or  the  economic  distress  of  his 
people,  "Yehoash"  sings  more  readily  on  Jewish 
themes,  and  his  song  flows  freely  and  fully,  often 
reaching  the  highest  pitch  of  poetic  fervor.  His 
art  needs  no  special  coaxing,  and  shows  itself 
at  its  best  where  it  is  the  least  influenced  from 
the  outside.  Probably  no  finer  love-songs  have 
come  from  the  pen  of  any  other  Yiddish  poet, 
but  it  is  in  his  Jewish  national  themes  that 
"Yehoash"  reveals  his  truly  great  art.  In  the 
Bible  and  the  rabbinical  legends  he  has  found  a 
perennial  source  of  inspiration,  while  nature  and 
the  saga  of  all  nations  are  voluminously  echoed  in 
his  writings.  His  "Gasammelte  Lieder"  (New 
York,  1910),  as  well  as  the  later  volume  entitled  "In 
Sun  un  Nebel  ("Through  Mist  and  Sunshine"), 
1913,  are  the  finest  collection  of  Yiddish  verse  of 
the  last  decade.  "Yehoash"  is  also  noted  for  his 
cutting  and  piercing  humor,  and  his  prose  is  as 
limpid  and  true  as  his  verse  is  sublime.  He  has 
translated  into  Yiddish  Longfellow's  "Hiawatha" 
as  well  as  several  books  of  the  Bible,  including 
Isaiah  and  Job,  has  collaborated  with  Dr.  C.  D. 
Spivak  in  the  preparation  of  a  Yiddish  lexicon,  and, 
on  his  return  in  1915  from  Palestine,  where  he  had 
sojourned  for  many  months,  has  written  for  the 
Yiddish  press  a  series  of  impressions  of  the  new 
Jewish  life  in  the  Holy  Land  which  were  received 
with  great  favor  and  have  also  appeared  sepa- 
rately in  three  volumes  under  the  name  of  "From 
New  York  to  Rehobbot"  (New  York,  1917-1918). 
If  the  Yiddish  press  has  performed  much 


SOLOMON   BI.OOMGARI-EX    (JEHOASH) 
(b.  1870) 


AMERICA  325 

praiseworthy  service  in  educating  the  immigrant 
and  helping  him  to  adapt  himself  to  his  new  sur- 
roundings, and  if  the  literature  this  immigrant 
has  produced  is  resplendent  with  great  spiritual 
and  artistic  achievement  and  with  the  promise 
of  still  greater  glory  to  be  won, — but  little  can 
be  said  about  another  important  creation  of  the 
Russian  Jew  in  America:  the  Yiddish  theatre. 
It,  too,  was  brought  over  from  Russia  with  the 
immigration  tide  of  the  early  eighties,  and  doubt- 
less would  have  served  the  highly  useful  pur- 
pose of  cultivating  the  artistic  nature  of  the  Jew 
and  of  bringing  into  play  the  finer  susceptibilities 
of  his  soul — had  it  from  the  very  start  fallen  into 
more  responsible  hands.  Unfortunately  the  men 
who  are  to  be  credited  with  the  creation  of  the 
Yiddish  stage  in  America  were  actuated  by  mo- 
tives of  pecuniary  gain  for  themselves  rather 
than  of  service  to  the  higher  interests  of  their 
people.  Accordingly,  instead  of  responding  to  the 
more  cultural  cravings  of  the  masses  the  stage  in 
their  hands  became  a  medium  of  cheap  and  oft- 
times  degrading  amusement.  Instead  of  copying 
the  ways  of  the  better  sort  of  English  theatres 
they  aped  the  methods  pursued  in  the  variety  and 
music  halls,  with  the  result  that  the  taste  of  the 
Yiddish  theatre-goers  rapidly  deteriorated  and 
grew  unappreciative  of  performances  of  greater 
artistic  merit.  Where  in  Russia  and  Roumania 
the  managers  of  the  Yiddish  stage  sought  to  give 
it  a  Jewrish  religious  or  national  coloring  by  large- 
ly offering  plays  from  ancient  Jewish  life  in  Pales- 
tine or  from  modern  life  within  the  Russian 
"Pale,"  their  colleagues  in  America  permitted  their 
business  interests  to  dictate  to  them  a  policy  of  de- 
generation. Goldfaden,  who  transferred  his  liter- 
ary activities  from  Russia  to  America  and  who 
might  have  helped  in  the  building  up  of  a  con- 


326  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

structively  Jewish  stage,  was  soon  allowed  to  fall 
into  disuse  as  a  dramaturge,  the  New  York  man- 
agers preferring  the  decadent  productions  of  Hur- 
witz,  Lateiner  and  Seifert.  The  plays  of  a  better 
sort,  written  by  the  more  modern  writers,  Libin 
and  Kobrin,  were  given  to  indifferent  audiences, 
and  even  the  arrival  in  America  in  recent  years 
of  men  like  Shalom  Ash,  Osip  Dymov  and  Perez 
Hirschbein,  who  had  already  achieved  fame  as 
dramatists  in  Europe,  failed  to  save  the  Yiddish 
theatre  from  the  decay  into  which  it  had  fallen 
from  its  incipiency.  Jacob  Gordin  (Mirogorod, 
Poltava,  i853,-New  York,  1909),  who  was  the 
most  forceful  and  prolific  of  all  American  Jewish 
dramatists,  exercised  in  his  day  a  more  healthy 
influence  upon  the  stage  which  to-day  still  glories 
in  his  achievements.  He  wrote  about  seventy 
plays  and  playlets,  the  majority  of  which  are 
worthless,  but  some  of  which  show  true  literary 
merit,  notably  his  "Gott,  Mensch  und  Teufel" 
(God,  Man  and  Devil),  a  Yiddish  adaptation  of 
"Faust,"  "Mirele  Efros,"  "Die  Yesome"  (The 
Orphan),  "Die  Shehita" -(The  Slaughter),  "The 
Jewish  Priest"  and  "The  Russian  Jew  in  America." 
While  his  plays  are  all  more  or  less  adaptations 
from  the  French,  German  and  Russian  masters, 
Gordin  is  most  successful  when  dealing  with  sub- 
jects taken  from  Jewish  life  in  Russia.  It  is 
plain,  however,  that  whatever  power  Gordin  pos- 
sessed as  a  dramatist  was  in  no  small  measure 
tethered  and  dwarfed  by  the  demands  of  the  the- 
atrical managers  and  the  general  public  taste 
which  are  the  real  literary  arbiters  in  the  Amer- 
ican Yiddish  theatre.  It  should  at  the  same  time 
be  stated  that,  apart  from  this  deplorable  policy, 
this  theatre  has  had  the  good  fortune  of  develop- 
ing and  calling  into  deserved  fame  several  ex- 
ceedingly able  artists,  notably,  Jacob  P.  Adler, 


JACOB  GORDIN 
(1853-1909) 


AMERICA  327 

Sigmund  Mogulesco,  Bertha  Kalisch  and  Kenia 
Liptzin.  Of  these  Adler  and  Kalisch  have  in  re- 
cent years  won  prominence  on  the  English  stage 
as  well.  Considered  as  a  whole,  however,  the 
Yiddish  theatre  is  an  achievement  the  Russian 
Jew  in  America  has  the  least  reason  to  be  proud 
of. 

The  immigrants  soon  grew  conscious  of  the 
latent  strength  their  rapidly  increasing  numbers 
spelt  for  American  Jewish  life  and,  following 
the  example  set  for  them  by  the  German  Jews, 
organized  themselves  into  a  number  of  fraternal 
orders.  As  an  impelling  force  toward  the  crea- 
tion of  these  separate  orders  were  the  rather  ir- 
reconcilable differences  which  at  an  early  stage 
arose  between  the  German  and  Russian  immi- 
grants. The  attitude  of  the  German  Jew  toward 
his  Russian  co-religionist  often  proved  to  be  one 
of  pity  not  unmingled  with  contempt  for  his  out- 
landish \vays  and  habits,  and  while  at  all  times 
willing  to  alleviate  his  distress  he  was  not  always 
ready  to  welcome  him  into  the  circle  of  his  friends, 
nor  to  encourage  him  to  become  one  with  himself 
in  the  public  activities  in  which  he  was  engaged. 
The  Russian  Jew,  in  turn,  resented  this  con- 
descending attitude,  and  his  gratitude  for  the 
pecuniary  relief  so  readily  granted  him  by  his 
German  brother  was  not  sufficiently  strong  to  off- 
set the  bitterness  he  felt  and  the  contempt  he  bore 
the  former  for  what  he  regarded  as  his  un-Jewish 
manner  and  his  seeming  lack  of  Jewish  learning. 
The  gulf  separating  Reform  from  Orthodoxy  was 
also  a  factor  in  dividing  the  Germans  and  Rus- 
sians into  two  antagonistic  camps, — a  circum- 
stance which  in  after  years  had  a  deplorabe 
effect  upon  Jewish  affairs  in  nearly  all  American 
cities  and  towns,  causing  an  unnecessary  duplica- 
tion and  overlapping  in  Jewish  charitable  and 


328  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

educational  activities,  and  largely  hindering  the 
cause  of  real  and  complete  union.  The  fraternal 
orders  which  arose  among  the  newly  arrived 
immigrants  in  opposition  to  the  B'nai  B'rith  was 
in  very  large  measure  the  result  of  this  unfriendly 
relationship.  Of  these  orders  the  most  prominent 
is  the  already  mentioned  Independent  Order  B'rith 
Abraham,  which  was  founded  in  1887  and  which 
to-day  has  a  membership  of  more  than  200,000. 
The  wrorkingmen,  too,  have  their  own  order,  the 
"Arbeiter  Ring,"  with  a  membership  of  about 
60,000.  Unlike  the  B'nai  B'rith  these  orders  are 
largely  protective  organizations  with  sick  benefit, 
free  burial  and  insurance  as  their  leading  fea- 
tures. They  are  not  actively  interested  in  charity 
or  educational  work,  have  founded  no  institutions 
for  any  such  purposes  though  they  often  con- 
tribute toward  charitable  objects,  and,  in  conse- 
quence, do  not  occupy  as  important  a  place  in  the 
larger  Jewish  affairs  of  the  country  as  they 
otherwise  might  in  view  of  their  numerical 
strength. 

With  the  passing  of  the  years  the  Russian  Jew 
became  more  self-assertive  in  another  direction. 
The  activities  of  the  German-American  Jew  had 
been  directed  largely  toward  the  goal  of  the  Amer- 
icanization of  the  immigrant,  for  which  pur- 
pose special  institutions,  patterned  after  the 
familiar  American  settlement-house,  were  called 
into  being,  such  as  the  Educational  Alliance  and 
the  Henry  Street  Settlement  of  New  York,  the 
Hebrew  Educational  Society  of  Brooklyn,  the 
Hebrew  Institute  of  Chicago,  and  the  numerous 
Young  Men's  and  Young  Women's  Hebrew  As- 
sociations which  are  to  be  found  in  every  large 
American  Jewish  centre.  The  prosperity  now 
enjoyed  by  the  Russian  immigrants  brought  with 
it  the  spirit  of  independence;  they  who  at  one 


AMERICA  329 

time  were  recipients  now  themselves  became  con- 
tributors and,  on  finding  that  the  institutions 
they  were  called  on  to  help  maintain  were  not 
conducted  in  the  Jewish  traditional  spirit,  began 
to  demand  the  introduction  of  a  policy  of  greater 
Jewishness.  They  asserted,  with  a  show  of  much 
plausibility,  that  the  process  of  Americanization 
was  spontaneous  and  automatic,  needing  no  special 
outside  aid,  while  there  was  urgent  need  of  using 
all  efforts  in  the  work  of  Judaizing  the  young  who 
were  steadily  becoming  alienated  from  the  tenets 
and  practices  of  their  fathers.  The  Yiddish  press 
kept  up  the  propaganda,  rousing  the  communal 
consciousness  of  the  conservative  and  orthodox 
elements  to  the  need  of  making  the  existing  char- 
itable institutions,  founded  and  maintained  by  the 
Reform  Jews,  more  observant  of  the  traditional 
Jewish  practices  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  bene- 
ficiaries of  these  institutions  were,  in  nearly  every 
case,  orthodox.  The  influence  of  Dr.  Solomon 
Schechter  (Fokshani,  Roumania,  i848-New  York, 
1915),  who  in  1902  came  to  New  York  as  head  of 
the  reorganized  Jewish  Theological  Seminary,  and 
of  the  many  disciples  that  rallied  around  him,  was 
also  exerted  in  the  same  direction,  and  there  arose 
a  Counter-Reformation  movement  which  soon 
found  its  leader  in  the  Rev.  Dr.  Judah  Leon 
Magnes  (b.  San  Francisco,  1877)  who,  in  1911, 
resigned  his  rabbinical  position  in  Temple  Emanu- 
El  of  New  York  to  accept  the  rabbinate  of  a  con- 
servative and  to  him  more  congenial  congregation. 
In  opposition  to  the  large  and  influential  Union 
of  American  Hebrew  Congregations,  the  leading 
organization  of  Reform  Jews,  there  was  called 
into  being  the  United  Synagogue  of  America 
(1913)  with  Dr.  Schechter  as  its  president.  How- 
ever limited  the  success  of  the  new  movement  may 
have  proved,  it  largely  attained  its  purpose  by  caus- 


33°  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

ing  the  wave  of  religious  conservatism  to  spread 
all  through  the  land  and  by  influencing  even  the 
more  radical  of  Reform  centres  to  change  their 
attitude  toward  Jewish  traditionalism,  and  to 
adopt-  a  more  conservative  policy  in  many  things 
essential  to  the  religious  life  of  the  American 
Jew. 

In  this  religious  revival  a  prominent  part  was 
played  also  by  the  Zionist  movement  which  was 
introduced  in  the  United  States  at  the  very  time 
Theodore  Herzl  was  convening  the  first  congress 
at  Bazel,  and  which  soon  found  many  adherents 
not  only  among  the  recently  arrived  immigrants, 
but  among  native  Jews  as  well.*  There  had  been 
a  few  societies  of  the  "Hibbat  Ziyyon"  (Love  of 
Zion)  type  in  the  United  States  before  1897, 
without,  however,  forming  into  a  united  and  con- 
certed movement.  With  the  publication  of  Herzl's 
"Judenstaat"  (1896)  the  doctrine  of  Jewish  Na- 
tionalism began  to  assert  itself  more  fully  in 
America,  spurred  on  by  the  prominent  Hebrew 
publicists  of  the  day,  Wolf  Schur  in  his  "Ha-Pis- 
gah,"  Gerson  Rosenzweig,  in  his  "Ha-Ibri,"  A.  H. 
Rosenberg  and  Herman  Rosenthal  in  the  Ner  ha- 
"Maarabi,"  and  aided  by  the  Yiddish  "Daily  News" 
of  New  York  and  Courier  of  Chicago.  Shortly 
after  the  first  Zionist  Congress  a  number  of  lead- 
ing Zionists  from  several  cities  met  in  New  York 
and  there  laid  the  foundation  of  the  present 
"Federation  of  American  Zionists"  in.  the  organ- 
ization of  which  a  leading  part  was  taken  by  Her- 
man Rosenthal,  Richard  Gottheil,  S.  Schaffer, 
Bernard  Drachman,  K.  H.  Sarahson,  Adam  Ros- 
enberg, David  Liknaitz,  I.  I.  Morrison,  Stephen  S. 
Wise,  Abner  Tannenbaum  and  Max  Raisin.  Pro- 
fessor Gottheil  was  elected  as  its  first  president. 

*  For   a   more   detailed   account   of    the    Zionist    movement   as    a 
whole  see  the  last  chapter  of  this  volume. 


AMERICA  331 

The  following  year  the  Federation  convened  in 
Baltimore  when  a  considerable  expansion  of  the 
movement  was  reported.  Annual  Zionist  conven- 
tions have  been  held  ever  since  in  various  cities, 
each  year  showing  a  marked  growth  in  the  ranks 
of  Zionist  sympathizers.  Meantime  great  opposi- 
tion to  the  movement  had  developed  among  the 
Reform  Jews,  led  by  several  of  their  more  promi- 
nent rabbis.  At  the  seventh  annual  gathering  of 
the  Central  Conference  of  American  Rabbis,  held 
in  Montreal  in  1897,  Dr.  Isaac  Mayer  Wise 
vehemently  attacked  the  new  movement  in  his 
presidential  message,  spoke  of  its  leaders  as  those 
"who  revive  among  certain  classes  of  people  the 
political  national  sentiment  of  olden  times,  and 
turn  the  mission  of  Israel  from  the  province  of 
religion  and  humanity  to  the  narrow  political  and 
national  field,  where  Judaism  loses  its  universal 
and  sanctified  ground  and  its  historical  significa- 
tion," and  of  Zionism  as  "a  fata  morgana,  a  mo- 
mentary inclination  of  morbid  minds,  and  a  pros- 
titution of  Israel's  holy  cause  to  a  madman's 
dance  of  unsound  politicians."  At  his  instance 
a  committee  consisting  of  Drs.  Landsberg,  Miel- 
ziner  and  Samfield,  presented  the  following  reso- 
lution which  the  conference  adopted:  "Resolved, 
That  we  totally  disapprove  of  any  attempt  for  the 
establishment  of  a  Jewish  State.  Such  attempts 
show  a  misunderstanding  of  Israel's  mission, 
which  from  the  narrow  political  and  national  field 
has  been  extended  to  the  promotion  among  the 
whole  human  race  of  the  broad  and  universalistic 
religion  first  proclaimed  by  Israel's  prophets.  Such 
attempts  do  not  benefit,  but  infinitely  harm  our 
Jewish  brethren  where  they  are  still  persecuted, 
by  confirming  the  assertion  of  their  enemies  that 
the  Jews  are  foreigners  in  the  countries  in  which 
they  are  at  home,  and  of  which  they  are  every- 


332  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

where  the  most  loyal  and  patriotic  citizens.  We 
reaffirm  that  the  object  of  Judaism  is  not  political 
nor  national,  but  spiritual,  and  addresses  itself 
to  the  continuous  growth  of  peace,  justice  and 
love  in  the  human  race,  to  a  Messianic  time  when 
all  men  will  recognize  that  they  form  one  great 
brotherhood  for  the  establishment  of  God's  king- 
dom on  earth."  Again,  at  the  Biennial  Council  of 
the  Union  of  American  Hebrew  Congregations, 
which  took  place  at  Richmond,  Va.,  in  1899,  the 
following  resolution  introduced  by  Rabbi  David 
Philipson  was  adopted:  "While  we  are  aware  of 
and  deplore  the  abject  conditions  to  which  many 
of  our  brethren  are  subjected  in  foreign  lands, 
and  which  have  naturally,  but  unfortunately, 
aroused  in  some  of  them  a  yearning  for  a  re- 
establishment  in  Zion,  yet  we,  delegates  of  the 
Union  of  American  Hebrew  Congregations  in 
convention  assembled,  in  view  of  the  active  propa- 
ganda being  made  at  present  for  the  so-called 
Zionistic  movement,  deem  it  proper  and  necessary 
to  put  ourselves  on  record  as  follows:  We  are 
unalteraby  opposed  to  political  Zionism.  The 
Jews  are  not  a  nation,  but  a  religious  community. 
Zion  was  a  precious  possession  of  the  past,  the 
early  home  of  our  faith,  where  our  prophets  ut- 
tered their  world-enduring  thoughts,  and  our 
psalmists  sang  their  world-enchanting  hymns.  As 
such,  it  is  a  holy  memory,  but  it  is  not  our  hope 
of  the  future.  America  is  our  Zion.  Here,  in 
the  home  of  religious  liberty,  we  have  aided  in 
founding  this  new  Zion,  the  fruition  of  the  begin- 
ning laid  in  the  old.  The  mission  of  Judaism  is 
spiritual,  not  political.  Its  aim  is  not  to  establish 
a  State,  but  to  spread  the  truths  of  religion  and 
humanity  throughout  the  world." 

These  repeated  attacks  on  the  cherished  ideals 
of  the  Zionists  only  served  to  widen  the  breach 


AMERICA  333 

between  Orthodoxy  and  Reform,  despite  the  fact 
that  many  orthodox  rabbis  and  laymen  were,  on 
religious  grounds,  themselves  opposed  to  Zionism, 
and  that  a  number  of  the  Zionist  leaders,  such  as 
Dr.  Gustav  Gottheil  and  his  son,  Richard,  Dr. 
Marcus  Jastrow,  Dr.  Stephen  S.  Wise  and  Rabbi 
Max  Heller  came  from  the  Reform  camp.  Re- 
form became  synonymous  with  anti-nationalism, 
while  Zionism  in  its  religious  implications  came  to 
stand  for  conservatism.  The  leaders  of  the 
movement  began  a  publicity  campaign  by  means 
of  a  number  of  brochures  and  books  and  the 
establishment  of  two  Zionist  organs,  the  "Mac- 
cabaean,"  a  monthly  in  English,  and  "Dos  Yid- 
dishe  Folk,"  a  weekly  in  Yiddish.  The  Zionist 
propaganda  in  America  was  further  enhanced  by 
the  visit  to  the  United  States  of  Dr.  Schmaryahu 
Levin  and  Nahum  Sokolow,  members  of  the 
smaller  "Actions  Committee,"  and  of  Dr.  Benzion 
Mossinsohn,  the  director  of  the  Hebrew  High 
School  at  Jaffa.  The  leadership  of  the  movement, 
passed  into  the  hands  of  Dr.  Harry  Friedenwald 
of  Baltimore  and  Louis  Lipsky  of  New  York, 
who  introduced  a  new  system  and  enlarged  the 
scope  of  Zionist  activity.  New  parties  soon 
sprang  up  within  the  movement,  the  "Poale  Zion," 
a  Socialistic  group,  and  the  "Mizrahi,"  a  group  of 
ultra-orthodox  Zionists.  A  women's  branch  of 
the  movement  was  established  in  the  "Hadassah," 
and  a  young  people's  organization  in  "Young 
Judaea."  An  insurance  and  fraternal  Zionist 
Order  was  also  called  into  life  in  the  "Order  Sons 
of  Zion,"  while  the  young  men  and  women  at  the 
colleges  and  universities  organized  themselves  into 
an  "Intercollegiate  Zionist  Association."  Finally, 
when  the  Great  War  broke  out  in  1914,  and  all 
Zionist  activity  in  Europe  was  largely  suspended, 
a  new  organization  was  formed,  through  the  in- 


334  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

strumentality  of  Dr.  Schmaryahu  Levin,  under 
the  name  of  "The  Provisional  Committee  for 
General  Zionist  Affairs"  (1914),  for  the  purpose 
of  caring  for  the  Zionist  institutions  in  Palestine 
during  the  crisis  and  of  maintaining,  so  far  as 
possible  and  practicable,  international  Zionist  re- 
lations. This  latest  organization  soon  proved 
itself  the  leading  force  in  Zionist  activity  in  Amer- 
ica, it  raises  annually  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
dollars  for  relief  work  in  Palestine  and  for  propa- 
ganda, subsidizes  a  number  of  Zionist  agencies 
and  publications  and  is,  furthermore,  to  be  cred- 
ited with  having  called  forth  into  active  Zionist 
work  the  man  who  was  to  prove  the  most  valiant 
and  capable  leader  of  the  movement  in  America, 
the  United  States  Supreme  Court  Justice,  Louis 
Dembitz  Brandeis. 

Yet,  despite  his  separatist  and  nationalistic  as- 
pirations, the  Russian  Jew  has  repeatedly  demon- 
strated that  he  loves  America  with  a  supreme 
passion,  and  he  probably  appreciates  the  blessings 
of  the  great  democracy  he  is  privileged  to  live  in 
even  more  than  many  a  native  son.  Instinctively 
he  is  grateful  for  obtaining  here  the  very  condi- 
tions for  living  his  own  Jewish  life,  for  the  lack  of 
which  he  had  martyrized  himself  in  Russia.  And 
if  he  still  indulges  the  historic  passion  of  his 
race  for  the  ancient  homeland  it  is  not  out  of  a 
divided  allegiance  but  because  he  recognizes  that 
even  in  a  land  of  freedom  Jewish  life  cannot  be 
complete,  that  the  very  liberty  which  is  his  often 
makes  for  the  disintegration  of  both  his  race  and 
his  faith.  He  also  understands  that  the  genius  of 
American  democracy  is  of  a  nature  to  make  Zion- 
ism fully  compatible  with  Americanism.  The 
right  of  the  Russian  Jew  to  consider  himself  an 
American  of  Americans  has  never  been  more 
clearly  proven  than  during  the  Spanish-American 


Louis   DEMBITZ   BRANDEIS 
(b.   1857) 


AMERICA  335 

War  (1898)  when  about  four  thousand  immi- 
grants, most  of  them  from  Russia,  volunteered 
for  the  service,  many  of  them  serving  with 
Colonel  Theodore  Roosevelt  in  his  "Rough  Rider" 
Regiment.  It  is  now  again  being  shown  with  the 
entrance  of  America  into  the  Great  War  on  the 
side  of  the  Allies.  Of  the  fifty  thousand  Jews 
that  have  already  enlisted  or  were  drafted  (Janu- 
ary, 1918),  the  majority  come  from  among  these 
immigrants.  It  was  to  satisfy  the  religious  needs 
and  cultural  wants  of  these  Jewish  soldiers  that 
it  was  found  necessary  to  organize  a  special 
"Welfare  Board"  and  to  raise  an  initial  sum  of 
one  million  dollars  for  the  purpose.  For  even  in 
the  army  and  on  the  firing  line  the  Jew  insists  on 
his  right,  which  is  the  common  right  of  all  Amer- 
ican soldiers,  to  lead  his  own  religious  life 
wherever  compatible  with  military  duty.  These 
American  Jewish  boys  at  the  front  will  doubtless 
add  another  noble  page  to  the  story  of  Jewish 
valor  which  has  already  been  recorded  in  the 
blood  of  the  one  hundred  thousand  Jewish  heroes 
that  have  fallen  during  the  many  sanguinary 
battles  since  the  beginning  of  the  war. 

Essentially  Zionism  is  a  revolutionary  move- 
ment, implying  an  organized  protest  not  merely 
against  the  actual  oppression  and  persecution  of 
the  Jew,  but  against  all  forms  and  expressions  of 
ill-will  shown  him  in  public  and  in  private  life. 
That  it  should  have  its  greatest  appeal  for  the 
immigrant  Jews  is  easily  explainable  on  the 
ground  of  their  maltreatment  in  their  native  lands. 
That  these  immigrants  should  persist  in  their  na- 
tional aspirations  even  after  finding  themselves 
on  the  soil  of  political  freedom  and  equality  is  due 
to  the  fact  that,  owing  to  their  unhappy  experi- 
ences, they  can  more  readily  sense  the  enonomic  ill- 
will  and  the  social  ostracism,  to  which  even  the 


336  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

American  Jew  is  subjected,  than  their  less  sensi- 
tive German  co-religionists.  Because  of  this 
sensitiveness  on  the  part  of  the  Russian  Jew  there 
was  made  possible  the  enactment  of  certain  legis- 
lative measures  and  the  creation  of  several  protec- 
tive organizations  which  without  him  would  prob- 
ably never  have  taken  place.  When,  in  1908,  the 
then  Police  Commissioner  of  New  York  City, 
General  Theodore  Bingham,  made  an  onslaught 
on  the  character  and  reputation  of  the  New  York 
Jews,  declaring  that  fully  60  per  cent,  of  the 
criminals  of  the  city  was  furnished  by  them,  the 
storm  of  indignant  protest  that  arose  led  in  that 
year  to  the  formation  of  the  New  York  Com- 
munity (Kehillah)  which  is  an  attempt,  not  as 
yet  wholly  successful,  to  federate  all  the  Jewish 
organizations  of  the  metropolis  for  mutually  pro- 
tective and  for  educational  purposes.  A  far  more 
important  achievement,  due  in  large  measure  to 
this  same  sensitiveness  to  discrimination  was  the 
abrogation,  in  1911,  of  the  treaty  of  commerce 
and  navigation  made  in  1832  between  the  United 
States  and  Russia.  In  violation  of  the  terms  of 
that  treaty  the  Russian  Government  for  many 
years  persisted  in  disregarding  the  passport  held 
by  Jewish  Americans  who  visited  Russia,  subject- 
ing them  to  many  cruel  humiliations  because  of 
their  religious  belief.  Unless  such  citizens  first 
obtained  the  special  permission  of  the  Russian 
Government  through  its  representatives  in  Amer- 
ica they,  whether  naturalized  or  native-born  citi- 
zens of  the  United  States,  whether  former  sub- 
jects of  the  Czar  or  of  any  other  government, 
were  likely  to  be  barred  from  entering  Russia  or, 
in  case  of  entry,  to  be  seized  and  jailed  or  de- 
ported. The  continued  ^protests  of  many  promi- 
nent Jews  to  the  State  Department  in  Washing- 
ton, extending  for  many  years,  were  often 


AMERICA  337 

unavailing,  and  whatever  protests  the  State  De- 
partment did  make  to  the  Russian  Government, 
notably  that  of  Secretary  of  State  James  G. 
Elaine,  in  1881,  and  later,  in  the  Cleveland  Ad- 
ministration, of  Secretary  Olney,  went  unheeded. 
The  immense  growth  of  the  Russian-Jewish 
colony  in  the  United  States  since  1881,  and  the 
great  need  which  many  of  these  settlers  found 
for  travel  and  sojourn  in  Russia  for  business  or 
other  reasons,  however,  soon  made  the  existing 
passport  situation  intolerable.  It  reached  a  crisis 
in  1907  when  Elihu  Root,  the  Secretary  oi  State 
in  the  Roosevelt  Administration,  issued  a  circular 
warning  all  former  Russian  subjects  against  going 
to  Russia  without  first  obtaining  the  permission 
of  the  Russian  Government.  "Jews,"  the  circular 
read,  "whether  they  were  formerly  Russian  sub- 
jects or  not,  are  not  admitted  to  Russia  unless 
they  obtain  special  permission  in  advance  from 
the  Russian  Government,  and  this  Department 
will  not  issue  passports  to  former  Russian  sub- 
jects or  to  Jews  who  intend  going  to  Russian  ter- 
ritory, unless  it  has  assurance  that  the  Russian 
Government  will  consent  to  their  admission." 
This  meant  nothing  more  nor  less  than  that  the 
United  States  Government,  if  it  did  not  exactly 
approve  the  Russian  policy  of  discrimination 
against  American  citizens,  was  willing  to  counte- 
nance it  and  abide  by  it,  irrespective  of  all  treaty 
obligations.  It  soon  called  into  action  the  "Amer- 
ican Jewish  Committee,"  founded  in  1906  for  the 
safeguarding  of  Jewish  interests  at  home  and 
abroad,  which,  through  two  of  its  representatives, 
Louis  Marshall  and  Edward  Lauterbach,  made  a 
dignified  but  forceful  remonstrance  against  the 
action  of  the  Secretary,  with  the  result  that  the 
wording  of  the  objectionable  circular  was  modi- 
fied. This  half-measure  was,  however,  far  from 


33$  HISTORY   OF   THE   JEWS 

satisfactory.  The  evil  had  to  be  eliminated  at 
its  root.  Meyer  Sulzberger,  as  President  of  the 
American  Jewish  Committee,  addressed  himself 
to  President  Roosevelt  and  again  to  Secretary 
Root,  but  failed  to  obtain  tangible  results.  The 
opportunity  for  favorable  action  presented  itself 
soon  in  the  national  elections  of  1908,  when, 
through  the  efforts  of  the  "Committee,"  each  of 
the  great  national  parties,  the  Republican,  the 
Democratic  and  the  Independent,  adopted -a  plank 
in  its  platform  looking  to  the  removal  of  the"  pass- 
port evil.  William  Howard  Taft,  the  Republican 
candidate  for  the  Presidency,  placed  himself 
squarely  on  record  as  upholding  the  treaty  rights 
of  all  American  citizens,  regardless  of, race  or 
creed.  Mr.  Taft's  election  augured  well  for  the 
outcome  of  the  agitation.  A  new  stumbling  block 
presented  itself  in  the  attitude  assumed  toward 
the  question  by  the  new  Secretary  of  State,  Phil- 
ander C.  Knox.  The  appointment  of  Mr.  W.  W. 
Rockhill  as  Ambassador  to  Russia,  however,  was 
an  encouragement  that  the  matter  would  not  be 
left  in  abeyance.  In  the  meantime  a  concerted 
movement  was  organized  by  the  American  Jewish 
Committee  throughout  the  land  to  rouse  the  Amer- 
ican public  conscience  against  this  indignity  to 
American  citizenship.  Meetings  of  protest  were 
arranged  in  many  cities,  and  members  of  Con- 
gress were  urged  to  act  on  this  question  in  a 
legislative  way.  On  February  10,  1911,  Con- 
gressman Herbert  Parsons,  of  New  York  City, 
introduced  a  joint  resolution  "Providing  for  the 
termination  of  the  treaty  between  the  United 
States  of  America  and  Russia  concluded  at  Saint 
Petersburg,  December  eighteen,  eighteen  hundred 
and  thirty-two."  This  was  referred  to  the  Com- 
mittee on  Foreign  Affairs  and  ordered  to  be 
printed.  Before  this  Committee  appeared,  on 


AMERICA  339 

February  16  and  22,  Louis  Marshall,  together 
with  Representatives  Parsons,  Harrison,  Graham 
and  Gold f ogle,  and  eloquently  pleaded  for  the  ab- 
rogation of  the  treaty.  On  February  26  Senator 
Culberson  of  Texas  introduced  another  resolu- 
tion of  a  like  nature,  but  owing  to  the  lateness 
of  the  session  neither  resolution  could  be  acted 
on.  Congress  adjourned,  but  was  soon  reconvened 
in  extra  session,  and  on  April  6,  1911,  Mr.  Wil- 
liam Sulzer,  Representative  in  Congress  from 
New  York,  introduced  another  joint  resolution 
\which'  declared,  among  other  things,  "That  the 
Government  of  the  United  States  will  not  be  a 
party  to  any  treaty  which  discriminates,  or  which 
by  one  of  the  parties  thereto  is  so  construed  as  to 
discriminate  between  American  citizens  on  the 
ground  of  race  and  religion."  Again  Congress 
adjourned  without  action,  to  reassemble  in  Decem- 
ber of  that  year,  when  Sulzer  reintroduced  his 
resolution.  A  hearing  took  place  on  December 
11-12  before  the  House  Committee  on  Foreign 
Affairs  to  which  it  was  referred  and  which  unani- 
mously reported  it  without  amendment.  It  came 
to  a  vote  on  the  following  day,  December  13,  and 
was  carried  in  the  House  by  a  vote  of  three  hun- 
dred to  one.  In  the  Senate  action  was  taken  on  a 
similar  resolution  on  December  19,  resulting  in  a 
unanimous  vote  in  its  favor  by  all  of  the  seventy- 
two  Senators  present.  But  four  days  before  the 
senate  action,  on  December  15,  the  President  had 
already  instructed  Curtis  Guild,  Jr.,  the  American 
Ambassador  to  Russia,  to  notify  the  Russian  gov- 
ernment of  the  intention  of  the  American  govern- 
ment to  abrogate  the  treaty  of  1832. 

For  once  Jews  of  all  sections  and  shades  of  be- 
lief, German  and  Russian,  orthodox  and  Reform, 
found  themselves  a  unit  in  a  matter  so  vitally  im- 
portant to  the  Jewish  cause  in  Russia  no  less  than 


340  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

to  America,  the  successful  outcome  of  which  re- 
acted upon  the  dignity  and  honor  of  the  Jewish 
people  everywhere.  The  victorious  termination 
of  a  campaign  conducted  so  strenuously  and  for 
so  many  years  was  a  source  of  indescribable  joy 
to  the  Jews.  Divine  services  of  prayer  and 
thanksgiving1  were  held  in  many  a  synagogue  and 
appropriate  exhortations  were  delivered  by  the 
rabbis.  Before  long,  however,  a  still  weightier  and 
farther  reaching  event  was  to  act  as  a  unifying 
factor  for  American  Israel.  It  came  with  the 
lowering  of  the  war-clouds  in  1914,  and  the  ap- 
proach of  the  terrible  cataclysm  which  was  to 
devastate  half  of  the  habitable  world  and  leave  the 
marks  of  its  fiercest  ravages  among  the  lowly 
habitations  of  the  Jews  of  Eastern  Europe,  more 
especially  those  of  Lithuania,  Poland,  Galicia  and 
Roumania.  Caught  in  the  path  of  invading 
armies,  and  exposed  to  all  the  ruthlessness  of 
warfare  carried  on  by  a  brutalized  soldiery  on 
either  side,  victimized  by  Russian  Cossacks  in 
Galicia  and  informed  against  as  spies  and  traitors 
to  the  German  authorities  by  unscrupulous  agi- 
tators in  Poland  and  Lithuania,  robbed,  massacred 
and  exiled  on  the  least  pretext — it  was  not  long 
before  millions  of  Jews  were  facing  ruin  and  star- 
vation. American  Jewry  alone  was  in  a  position 
to  extend  aid  to  the  unfortunates,  nor  did  it  fail 
in  its  duty.  Early  in  the  crisis  the  various  sec- 
tions of  the  community  organized  themselves  into 
great  relief  committees  with  branches  all  over 
the  land,  the  Reform  elements  forming  them- 
selves into  the  "Jewish  Relief  Committee/'  the 
orthodox  into  the  "Central  Relief  Committee," 
and  the  laboring  classes  into  the  "People's  Relief 
Committee,"  thus  endeavoring  to  reach  all  groups 
and  factions  into  which  American  Israel  is  di- 
vided. Later,  all  these  organizations  consolidated 


AMERICA  341 

into  a  "J°int  Distribution  Committee,"  forming  a 
clearing  house  for  all  funds  to  be  sent  to  the 
afflicted  regions.  Representing  these  organiza- 
tions Dr.  Judah  Leon  Magnes  went  to  Europe  to 
obtain  accurate  information  of  the  existing  situa- 
tion and  to  place  the  distribution  of  relief  funds 
in  the  hands  of  competent  local  committees.  The 
response  of  American  Israel  to  the  cry  of  distress 
from  across  the  ocean  proved  so  liberal  and  en- 
heartening  that  the  leaders  of  the  relief  move- 
ment decided,  in  1917,  to  raise  an  additional  sum 
for  that  year  of  ten  million  dollars,  and  Julius 
Rosenwald,  the  eminent  philanthropist  of  Chicago, 
was  the  first  to  help  make  this  sum  realizable  by 
his  munificent  contribution  of  one  million  dollars. 
The  entire  amount  with  a  surplus  of  about  half  a 
million  dollars,  was  duly  raised  in  the  closing 
weeks  of  1917. 

This  great  work  of  relief  helped  to  bring  Ger- 
man and  Russian  Jews  in  America  as  close  to 
each  other  as  never  before.  United  in  the  com- 
mon purpose  of  aiding  their  suffering  fellow- 
Jews,  the  hope  could  now  be  entertained  that  the 
day  was  at  hand  when  the  prejudices  harbored 
by  each  of  these  factions  toward  the  other  would 
disappear,  leaving  naught  but  harmony  and  good 
will  in  their  stead.  The  great  humanitarian 
services  performed  by  Julius  Rosenwald,  Nathan 
Straus  and  Jacob  H.  Schiff  as  well  as  by  the  two 
Jewish  Ambassadors  who  successively  represented 
America  at  Constantinople  during  the  war,  Henry 
Morgenthau  and  Abram  I.  Elkus*  in  aiding  the 
cause  of  Jewish  relief  in  Europe  and  in  Palestine, 
and  the  splendid  showing  in  the  same  direction 
made  by  many  wealthy  and  prominent  leaders  of 

*  Mr.  Morgenthau  was  the  Ambassador  to  Turkey  during  the 
first  Wilson  administration,  Mr.  Elkus  during  both  the  first  and 
second  administrations. 


342  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

the  erstwhile  immigrant  Jews,  was  an  earnest 
of  the  desire  of  all  elements  in  Jewry  to  come 
together  in  all  matters  affecting  the  common  wel- 
fare of  the  Jews.  Unhappily,  before  long  the 
ship  of  Jewish  unity  was  again  threatened  with 
foundering  upon  the  rock  of  disharmony  arising 
from  the  "Jewish  Congress"  question.  This  ques- 
tion, coming  to  the  fore  during  the  early  months  of 
the  war,  and  increasing  in  importance  with  the 
continuance  of  the  great  struggle,  was  that  of 
having  a  congress  of  representatives  of  all  groups 
and  factions  of  American  Jewry  for  the  purpose 
of  deliberating  upon  the  Jewish  situation  in 
Europe  and  in  Palestine  and  of  formulating  plans 
whereby,  at  the  forthcoming  peace  conference 
of  the  belligerent  nations,  whenever  it  should  as- 
semble, the  voice  of  American  Israel  might  clear- 
ly and  forcefully  be  heard  in  behalf  of  full  Jew- 
ish emancipation  wherever  such  emancipation  has 
not  yet  taken  place.  For  nearly  two  years  Jew- 
ish leaders  in  America  found  it  difficult  to  agree 
on  the  advisability  of  holding  the  Congress  dur- 
ing the  war,  and,  when  that  was  finally  agreed 
upon,  on  the  scope  of  its  work  and  the  methods 
of  representation.  On  several  occasions  the  dis- 
cussion led  to  acrimonious  verbal  warfare  among 
the  opponents,  and  at  the  conference  of  the  na- 
tional Jewish  organizations  held  on  June  20,  1916, 
in  New  York,  Supreme  Court  Justice  Brandeis 
was  so  bitterly  attacked  that  he  found  himself 
constrained  to  resign  from  all  active  participation 
in  the  work  of  the  proposed  Congress.  When,  fi- 
nally, all  arrangements  had  been  completed  for  the 
holding  of  congressional  elections  on  a  purely  dem- 
ocratic basis,  the  suffrage  by  secret  ballot  being 
open  to  Jews  everywhere,  and  to  women  as  well 
as  to  men,  a  number  of  organizations  suddenly 
decided  to  withdraw  from  the  movement,  begin- 


AMERICA  343 

ning  with  the  Socialist  group  of  the  "National 
Jewish  Workers'  Association,"  and  followed  by 
the  Union  of  American  Hebrew  Congregations, 
the  Hebrew  Union  College  and  the  Central  Con- 
ference of  American  Rabbis.  Nevertheless,  the 
movement  was  but  little  affected  by  these  with- 
drawals, more  than  three  hundred  thousand  voters 
participating  in  the  elections  which  were  held  on 
June  12  and  13,  1917.  The  blame  for  this 
eleventh-hour  attempt  at  disunion  was,  with  a  cer- 
tain degree  of  plausibility,  laid  at  the  doors  of 
the  Reform  leaders  and  a  few  of  the  representa- 
tives of  the  Neo-Orthodox  group,  who,  having 
long  enjoyed  a  self-assumed  ascendency  in  Ameri- 
can Jewish  affairs,  sensed  in  this  new  movement 
the  danger  of  having  the  reins  of  leadership  taken 
from  their  hands. 

Despite  all  efforts  to  thwart  the  plans  of  the 
"American  Jewish  Congress  Committee,"  and 
prevent  the  holding  of  the  Congress,  that  gather- 
ing, though  temporarily  and  indefinitely  post- 
poned, will  most  likely  convene,  as  per  resolution 
adopted,  just  as  soon  as  the  end  of  the  war  is 
sighted,  and  the  belligerent  nations  are  ready  to 
assemble  in  conference  to  arrange  for  a  lasting 
peace  when,  it  is  confidently  expected,  the  voice  of 
Israel  will  effectively  be  heard  with  that  of  other 
small  and  oppressed  nationalities  for  the  righting 
of  their  historic  wrongs. 

What  has  the  coming  of  the  Russian  Jew  meant 
to  American  Israel  ?  To  answer  this  question  best 
one  need  but  consider  what  might  have  happened 
had  the  Russian  Jewish  migration  never  wended 
its  way  to  the  western  hemisphere.  Clearly,  Amer- 
ican Jewry  would  in  that  case  have  remained  a 
dwarfed  and  petrified  organism,  culturally  and 
spiritually  as  well  as  numerically  an  inferior  body. 
It  might  have  enjoyed  a  happier  existence,  might 


344  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

have  been  spared  much  disagreeable  notoriety 
incidental  to  numbers,  might  have  preserved  a 
more  dignified  exterior,  and  might  even  have  at- 
tained an  enviable  place  in  the  economy  of  the 
larger  American  life.  Jewishly,  however,  it  would 
have  been  infinitely  the  poorer,  the  ties  binding  it 
to  the  rest  of  the  Jewish  world  would,  in  course 
of  time,  have  become  weakened,  its  Jewish  com- 
plexion would  have  grown  paler,  until,  with  the 
passing  of  the  years,  it  would  have  dwindled  down 
to  the  insignificant  position  now  held  by  the  Jews 
of  Scandinavia.  The  Russian  Jew  has  brought 
with  him  much  that  is  homely  and  unlovable, 
but  also  much  that  has  enriched  American  Jewish 
life  beyond  all  estimation.  He  has  brought  with 
him  the  healthy  unrest  which  makes  for  progress 
and  enlargement,  a  limitless  courage  and  an  un- 
flagging determination  to  succeed  despite  all  ob- 
stacles and  handicaps.  From  the  lowest  depths  of 
obscurity  he  has  steadily  risen  until  to-day  he 
ranks  as  a  power  to  be  reckoned  with  in  the  pro- 
fessions, the  industries,  and  the  political  parties. 
But  above  and  beyond  all  estimate  is  his  contribu- 
tion to  the  spiritual  life  of  the  American  Jew. 
Here  his  love  and  enthusiasm  for  the  old  faith 
and  for  the  literary  treasures  it  has  given  rise  to, 
have  created  possibilities  for  the  upbuilding  and 
development  of  a  Judaism  dignified,  virile  and 
ennobling,  whose  effect  is  certain  to  be  felt  in  the 
ranks  of  both  the  ultra-orthodox  and  the  radical 
Reformers.  His  is  still  the  transitory  stage  from 
the  old  to  the  new  life,  but,  whatever  the  short- 
comings of  the  present  generation,  his  children 
will  show  themselves  worthy  of  the  "Land  of 
Promise"  upon  the  heritage  of  which  they  have 
already  besrun  to  enter. 


This  historical  review  will  not  b£  complete  with- 
out at  least  touching  upon  the  new  Jewish  life 
which  in  the  last  two  or  three  generations  has 
begun  to  sprout  in  places  hitherto  unkown,  name- 
ly, in  the  far-away  English  colonies  of  Australia, 
Africa  and  other  continents.  These  settlements 
are  still  as  limited  in  the  number  of  their  in- 
habitants as  they  are  young  in  age,  nor  is  there 
much  likelihood  that  they  will  ever  develop  into 
very  large  communities,  far  removed  as  they  are* 
from  the  great  centres  of  Europe  and  America  to 
make  a  general  migration  there  desirable  for  the 
Jews.  Yet  with  the  limitations  thus  imposed  upon 
them  these  new  settlements  have  been  highly  suc- 
cessful from  every  consideration,  and  they  bid 
fair  to  remain  the  standard-bearers  of  a  healthy, 
progressive  and  withal  traditionally  loyal  Judaism 
for  many  generations  to  come. 

The  fortunate  circumstance,  that  these  new 
Jewish  settlements  are  placed  within  territory 
under  English  dominion,  has  greatly  favored  the 
newcomers  in  enabling  them  to  obtain  a  secure 
economic  foothold  and  at  the  same  time  in  en- 
couraging their  Jewish  loyalty.  England's  un- 
paralleled success  as  a  colonizer  reacted  also  upon 
the  Jews  who  were  willing  to  leave  their  native 

345 


346  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

homes  in  Europe  and  to  follow  the  British  flag1  to 
far-away  climes.  Wherever  they  went  they  re- 
ceived brotherly  treatment  and  were  afforded 
all  industrial  and  political  opportunities,  writh  the 
result  that  many  of  them  soon  grew  wealthy  and 
not  a  few  rose  in  the  political  scale  and  attained 
to  the  very  highest  offices.  The  Antisemitism 
which  late  in  the  nineteenth  century  was  making 
itself  felt  in  the  British  Isles  found  but  a  faint 
echo  in  these  distant  colonies  for  the  obvious  rea- 
son that  the  number  of  Jewish  settlers  \vas  at  all 
times  very  limited,  and  the  sparseness  of  the  gen- 
eral population  tended  to  raise  the  value  of  all 
man-material  of  whatever  origin,  aside  front  the 
fact  that  English-speaking  people  evej^where  have 
always  evinced  a  greater  friendliness  for  the  Jew 
than  other  Christian  nations,  and  have  made  his 
stay  in  their  midst  a  welcome  one.  Beginning  the 
story  of  English  colonial  Jewry  with  Australia 
we  find  that  the  Jewish  settlement  of  the  continent 
is  scarcely  more  than  a  hundred  years  old,  in  1817 
there  being  but  a  handful  of  Jews  in  Sydney,  New 
South  Wales.  As  in  so  many  other  Jewish  com- 
munities the  beginnings  of  the  Sydney  congre- 
gation centered  about  the  cemetery  which  the 
Jews  acquired  there  in  1820,  it  being  a  part  of 
the  Christian  cemetery.  Divine  services,  how- 
ever, were  not  held  till  1828,  when  the  members 
of  the  already  enlarged  congregation  assembled 
for  worship  in  the  home  of  one  of  their  number. 
The  spiritual  growth  of  the  community  followed 
the  numerical  increase  of  the  Jews  and  was  at- 
tended by  the  building  of  synagogues  and  the 
founding  of  charitable  institutions,  under  the  guid- 
ance of  several  able  and  devoted  ministers  who 
were  sent  there  by  the  Chief  Rabbi  of  England. 
The  Jews  of  Sydney  to-day  are  still  scarcely  more 
than  five  thousand  in  number  out  of  a  general 


COLONIAL    JEWRY  347 

population  of  pearly  half  a  million,  yet  they  boast 
of  a  synagogue  which,  architecturally,  is  said  to 
be  the  handsomest  structure  on  the  Australian 
continent. 

In  Melbourne,  the  capital  of  the  Victoria  prov- 
ince, a  congregation  was  not  formed  till  1844, 
and  the  first  synagogue  was  built  three  years 
later  upon  land  granted  for  the  purpose  by  the 
government.  It  had  as  its  first  rabbi  the  Rev- 
erend Moses  Rintel,  who  was  evidently  a  man  of 
strong  personality,  as  may  be  judged  by  the  fact 
that,  when  a  difference  of  opinion  arose  betweeii 
himself  and  the  administrators  of  the  congrega- 
tion, in  1858,  he  resigned  his  office  and  founded 
an  independent  congregation  where  he  continued 
to  minister  until  his  death  in  1880.  It  was  one 
exceptional  case  where  division  made  for  strength, 
for  the  rivalry  thus  engendered  between  the  two 
congregations  led  to  an  increased  interest  in  Jew- 
ish matters  on  the  part  of  the  laymen,  and  Mel- 
bourne in  course  of  time  became  the  strongest 
and  most  active  Jewish  centre  in  Australia.  As  a 
part  of  this  community  is  also  the  settlement  of 
St.  Kilda,  a  suburb  of  Melbourne,  where  a  con- 
gregation was  organized  some  fifty  years  ago  and 
a  synagogue  was  built  in  1872,  and  where  are 
located  the  charitable  institutions  of  the  greater 
Jewish  community.  Melbourne,  too,  is  supposedly 
under  the  spiritual  jurisdiction  of  the  London 
Chief  Rabbinate.  The  problem  of  intermarriage, 
an  object  of  concern  and  worry  to  most  of  modern 
Jewish  communities  in  Europe  and  America,  has 
evidently  reached  an  acute  stage  in  Melbourne, 
having  necessitated  the  formation  of  a  special 
federated  board,  representing  all  of  the  existing 
congregations,  to  grapple  with  it. 

Other  Australian  congregations  to  be  formed, 
not  all  of  which  have  continued  to  exist,  were 


348  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

those  of  Geelong,  Bendigo  and  IJallarat,  in  the 
Victoria  province  (1853),  in  Adelaide,  South  Aus- 
tralia (1781),  Brisbane,  Queensland  (1865),  Mait- 
land,  New  South  Wales  (1879),  and  Perth,  West 
Australia  (1892).  Notwithstanding  the  smallness 
of  their  number,  only  about  twenty  thousand  out 
of  a  population  of  nearly  four  million,  the  Jews 
of  Australia  have  made  great  headway  in  com- 
merce and  many  of  them  have  attained  to  high 
offices  in  the  municipal  and  continental  govern- 
ments. The  first  Mayor  of  Narrabi  was  a  Jew 
from  Sydney,  Charles  Collins,  who  later  also  sat 
in  the  Australian  Parliament.  L.  \Y.  Levy  was 
a  member  of  the  Legislative  Council  in  1882,  as 
was  also  J.  G.  Raphael,  after  whom  several  streets 
in  Sydney  are  named,  and  J.  J.  Cohen.  Samuel 
Cohen  was  the  first  Jew  to  sit  in  the  New  South 
Wales  Parliament,  Sir  Saul  Samuel,  Bart.,  was 
agent-general  for  Australia,  Sir  Julian  Salomons, 
K.  C,  was  for  a  time  chief  justice  of  the  colony, 
and  H.  E.  Cohen  served  as  a  justice  of  the  New 
South  Wales  Supreme  Court.  Edward  Cohen  was 
thrice  elected  Mayor  of  Melbourne,  while  I.  A. 
Isaacs  was  Attorney-General  of  Victoria  from 
1894-1899  at  the  same  time  as  his  brother,  J.  I. 
Isaacs,  was  a  member  of  Parliament.  Other  Jews 
prominent  in  public  life  in  various  capacities  in 
Australia  were  H.  Steinfeld,  Joseph  Steinberg,  F. 
J.  Levien,  Theo.  Fink,  B.  J.  Fink  and  D.  B. 
Lazarus.  The  Premiership  of  Australia,  the  high- 
est office  attainable,  was  in  1899  likewise  held  by 
a  Jew,  V.  L.  Solomon.  Indeed,  the  very  founding 
of  the  colony  is  traced,  among  others,  to  Jacob 
Montefiore,  a  cousin  of  Sir  Moses  Montefiore,  he 
having  been  selected  by  the  British  Government 
in  1835  to  administer  its  affairs  as  a  member  of 
the  first  Board  of  Commissioners.  Another  Aus- 
tralian pioneer  was  Barnett  Levy  who,  in  1833, 


COLONIAL    JEWRY  349 

opened  the  first  theatre  to  be  established  on  the 
continent. 

In  New  Zealand,  too,  the  Jews,  though  less 
than  two  thousand  in  number,  and  though  of  but 
very  recent  origin,  have  come  to  occupy  places  of 
distinction  in  the  government  of  the  islands.  With 
a  settlement  whose  foundation  dates  back  only  to 
the  seventies  of  the  last  century,  New  Zealand 
Jewry  has  none  the  less  produced  a  number  of 
prominent  leaders  in  Jewish  and  general  com- 
munal affairs.  The  most  prominent  of  these  was 
Sir  Julius  Yogel  who  was  Premier  of  New  Zea- 
land from  1874  to  1876  and  at  other  times  served 
as  colonial  treasurer,  commissioner  for  stamps 
and  customs,  and  postmaster-general.  Many  pub- 
lic improvements  and  innovations  in  the  colony 
were  due  to  his  enterprise  and  energy.  When  the 
renewal  of  the  persecutions  of  the  Jews  of  Rus- 
sia took  place  in  1891,  the  New  Zealand  Parlia- 
ment sent  a  petition  to  Czar  Alexander  III  in  be- 
half of  the  victims.  But  the  lustre  of  this  praise- 
worthy act  was  dimmed  two  years  later  when, 
fearful  of  the  diversion  of  a  large  Jewish  immi- 
gration from  Russia  to  New  Zealand,  and  acting 
under  the  influence  of  the  anti-immigration  propa- 
ganda which  was  then  agitating  England,  the 
New  Zealanders  took  steps  to  bar  the  gates  of 
their  country  against  the  rumored  invasion.  It  is 
evidently  much  easier  to  be  humane  and  charitable 
at  a  distance  than  at  home.  It  took  the  earnest 
assurance  of  Dr.  Adler,  the  Chief  Rabbi  of  Eng- 
land, that  no  such  wholesale  immigration  had  been 
contemplated,  to  calm  the  easily-aroused  but  other- 
wise good-natured  islanders,  and  the  ghost  of  a 
Jewish  "invasion"  of  New  Zealand  was  laid  pre- 
sumably for  all  time  to  come. 

Of  far  greater  importance  in  Jewish  life  both 
industrially  and  politically  than  the  combined 


350  HISTORY   OF   THE    JEWS 

settlements  of  Australia  and  New  Zealand, 
is  the  extensive  Jewish  colony  of  South 
Africa  which  dates  back  to  the  first  quarter 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  to-day  numbers 
about  fifty  thousand  souls  in  all  of  the  various 
provinces.  No  organized  Jewish  life  was  known 
in  South  Africa  until  1841  when  a  congregation 
was  founded  in  Cape  Town,  holding  its  first  serv- 
ices at  the  home  of  Benjamin  Norden.  The 
growth  of  the  Jewish  population  keeping  pace  with 
that  of  the  general  community,  more  congrega- 
tions sprang  up  and  more  synagogues  were  built, 
totalling  four  synagogues  for  Cape  Town  in  1905, 
with  A.  P.  Bender  as  the  leading  rabbi  of  the 
community.  Synagogues  to-day  exist  also  in 
Worcester  Road,  Robertson,  Steytlersville,  Oudt- 
shorn,  Port  Elizabeth,  Kimberley;  in  Natal,  where 
congregations  have  been  formed  in  Moritsburg, 
Durban,  and  Vreyheid;  in  the  Orange  Free  State 
with  a  congregation  at  Bloemfontein;  and  in  the 
Transvaal,  where  the  largest  South  African  Jew- 
ish settlement  exists  with  the  principal  Jewish 
community  located  at  Johannesburg,  numbering 
more  than  ten  thousand  souls.  Jews  came  to 
Johannesburg  immediately  upon  the  discovery  of 
the  gold-fields  of  Witwatersrand  in  1885,  and  two 
years  later  organized  the  first  congregation  of  the 
city  which  has  been  successfully  ministered  to  by 
Rabbis  Mark  L.  Harris  and  Joseph  H.  Hertz,  now 
the  Chief  Rabbi  of  the  Ashkenazic  community  in 
London.  A  new  congregation  was  formed  in 
1891,  called  the  "Jonanneskurg  Hebrew  Congre- 
gation," which  was  favored  by  the  Transvaal 
government  with  a  grant  of  land  for  a  synagogue. 
When  completed  the  building  was  dedicated  by 
Oom  Paul  Kruger,  the  president  of  the  Republic. 
The  present  incumbent  of  this  congregation  is 
Dr.  J.  L.  Landau,  who,  before  coming  to  South 


COLONIAL   JEWRY  351 

Africa,  had  won  fame  as  a  Hebrew  poet  and 
prose  writer  in  Austria. 

Jewish  religious  life  assumed  an  organized  form 
also  in  Pretoria,  where  there  is  a  population  of 
more  than  a  thousand  souls,  in  Heidelberg,  Volks- 
rust,  Krugersdorp,  Klerksdorp,  Germiston,  Roode- 
poort,  and  in  several  places  in  Rhodesia.  The  in- 
flux of  many  Jews  from  Eastern  Europe  has,  as 
in  other  countries,  brought  new  life  and  activity 
in  Jewish  affairs,  resulting  in  the  formation  of 
Zionist  groups  and  in  the  introduction  of  a  more 
vigorous  pursuit  of  the  study  of  Hebrew. 

Jews  are  spoken  of  as  among  the  leading 
factors  in  the  industrial  development  of  the  Cape 
Colony.  The  mohair  industry  was  introduced  in 
1856  by  the  three  Mosenthals,  Julius,  Adolph  and 
James.  Namaqualand  was  opened  up  by  Aaron 
and  Daniel  de  Pass  who,  from  1849  to  1886,  were 
the  largest  shipowners  of  Cape  Town  and  con- 
trolled the  sealing,  whaling  and  fishing  indus- 
tries, while  ostrich-farming  was  introduced  in  the 
Aberdeen  District  by  Joel  Myers.  In  the  diamond 
mining  industry,  too,  Jews  have  taken  a  most 
prominent  part.  An  almost  romantic  history  is 
that  of  "Barney  Barnato"  (Barnett  Isaacs),  a 
poor  boy  from  London's  East  End  ghetto,  who 
emigrated  to  Cape  Town  in  1873,  became  a  suc- 
cessful actor,  engaged  in  diamond  mining,  and  in 
a  short  time  was  a  leading  diamond  mining  oper- 
ator in  the  Kimberley  district,  for  a  time  even 
rivalling  Cecil  Rhodes  w^ho  operated  the  De  Beers 
mining  fields  until  the  two  amalgamated  their  in- 
terests in  the  Kimberley  Central  Company.  Un- 
fortunately for  himself,  Barnato  did  not  know 
how  to  conserve  his  wealth  when  in  possession  of 
it;  he  became  a  reckless  speculator  in  numerous 
enterprises  with  the  result  that  his  wealth  soon 
melted  away  and  from  a  fortune  reputed  at  one 


352  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

time  to  be  $85,000,000,  he  was  reduced  to  the 
comparatively  small  amount  of  $3,000,000  at  the 
time  of  his  death  at  the  age  of  forty-five.  Suc- 
cumbing to  the  terrific  mental  strain  under  which 
he  was  laboring,  Barnato,  in  June  of  1897, 
jumped  overboard  from  the  steamer  on  which 
he  was  returning  to  England,  the  victim  of  his 
own  colossal  achievements.  His  body  was  re- 
covered and  conveyed  to  London  for  burial. 

South  African  Jews  also  took  a  prominent  part 
m  the  political  events  of  the  country,  fighting  in 
all  of  the  wars,  and  sharing  in  the  administration 
of  the  various  provinces.     We  see  them  as  mem- 
bers of  parliament,  judges  of  the  supreme  court 
and  mayors  of  municipalities.     Many  years  before 
Natal  was  annexed  by  the  British  it  was,  in  1828, 
penetrated  by  a  Jew,  Nathaniel  Isaacs,  who  was 
received  kindly  by  Tchaka,  the  ruler  of  the  land, 
who  honored  him  with  the  designation  of  "Prin- 
cipal Chief."    A  rather  gloomy  chapter  of  Jewish 
history  in  South  Africa  was  the  period  of  reaction 
in  the  Transvaal  in  the  last  decade  of  the  nine- 
teenth  century   when  Jews   as   well   as   Catholics 
were    debarred    from    military   commissions,    and 
from  nearly  all  of  the  higher  offices  in  govern- 
ment.    Public  schools  were  likewise  closed  to  Jew- 
ish and  Catholic  children  and  teachers,  and  when, 
in  1899,  the  franchise  was  extended  to  all  the  in- 
habitants of  the  country,  Jews  from  Russia  and 
Roumania  were  singled  out  for  exclusion  from  its 
benefits.     For  daring  to  protest  at  a  public  meet- 
ing against  this  injustice,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Joseph  H. 
Hertz,  then  rabbi  of  Johannesburg,  was  expelled 
from  the  country   (December,   1899).     When  the 
Boer  War  broke   out    (1899)    Jews   were    found 
fighting  on  both  sides,  nearly  2800  of  them  being 
in  the  ranks  of  the  British.    The  cessation  of  hos- 
tilities came  about  in  no  small  measure  through 


COLONIAL    JEWRY  353 

the  influence  of  one  of  the  leading  merchants  and 
wealthiest  men  of  the  Traansvaal,  Samuel  Marks, 
a  one-time  Russian  immigrant,  who  used  his 
friendship  with  President  Kruger  and  his  influ- 
ence with  the  leaders  of  both  the  English  and 
Boer  forces  to  bring  about  the  peace  of  1902. 

Reference  must  here  be  made  also  to  the  ab- 
original Jews  of  other  African  colonies,  about 
whom  clusters  the  tradition  of  having  descended 
from  the  ten  lost  tribes,  the  ten  to  fifteen  thou- 
sand Jews  of  Morocco  still  pining  under  the  yoke 
of  Mohammedan  intolerance  and  misrule,  of  the 
Jews  of  Yemen  (Teman)  in  Arabia,  some  of 
whom  early  in  the  present  century  fled  from  the 
tyranny  of  their  native  land  and  went  to  Palestine 
where  they  became  a  sturdy  and  valuable  peas- 
antry, and  the  several  thousand  Falashas  in  Abys- 
sinia who  were  on  the  verge  of  being  lost  entirely 
to  Judaism  but  for  the  splendid  services  of  Dr. 
Jacob  Faitlovich  in  the  last  ten  years,  he  having 
visited  their  settlements  on  several  occasions  and 
having  procured  the  necessary  funds  for  their 
education  in  Jewish  and  secular  branches.  A 
brighter  picture  is  that  presented  by  the  Jews  of 
India  where,  under  the  fostering  care  alike  of  the 
British  government  and  the  distinguished  Sassoon 
family  in  the  past  seventy  years,  they  have  been 
enabled  to  emerge  from  the  poverty  and  igno- 
rance which  had  been  their  lot  for  many  centuries. 
There  has  not  been  much  of  a  Jewish  migration 
to  India  from  Europe  in  the  last  century,  and  of  the 
more  than  twenty  thousand  Jews  of  mixed  origins 
about  seven  thousand  belong  to  the  Beni-Israel  sec- 
tion, the  majority  of  whose  members  live  in 
Bombay  and  vicinity.  These  Jews,  claiming  a  his- 
tory of  about  eighteen  hundred  years  in  India,  have 
produced  at  least  one  prominent  leader  in  the  per- 
son of  Joseph  Ezekiel,  a  noted  author  and  educator, 


354  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

principal  of  the  David  Sassoon  Bene\olent  Institu- 
tion in  Bombay,  who  in  1871  was  made  examiner 
in  Hebrew  at  the  university  of  that  city.  There 
are  a  number  of  charitable  institutions  and  stately- 
looking  synagogues  in  Bombay,  Calcutta  and  other 
places,  most  of  which  are  maintained  through  the 
munificence  of  the  Sassoons. 


CHAPTER  VI 

PALESTINE,    THE    NATIONALIST    REVIVAL,    AND    THE 
ZIONIST   HOPE 

We  have  now  reached  the  last  chapter  in  the  re- 
markable story  of  a  remarkable  and  peculiar  peo- 
ple. Last  in  point  of  time  in  the  period  under  dis- 
cussion, it  in  reality  constitutes  the  first  and  intro- 
ductory page  in  the  new  volume  of  history  upon 
the  making  of  which  Israel  has  already  entered. 
Without  writing  Finis  to  his  tragic  and  melodra- 
matic life  in  the  Dispersion,  he  has  already  started 
the  Genesis  of  his  new  and  renewed  life  in  the  land 
that  once  cradled  him  as  a  national  unit  and  a  re- 
ligious community.  The  nightmare  of  fiendish  per- 
secution and  of  mental  and  moral  anguish,  lasting 
for  nineteen  hundred  years,  is  about  to  be  forgot- 
ten in  the  history  of  the  rejuvenation  and  rebirth 
of  this  ancient  people,  a  narrative  as  thrilling  as 
it  is  unique  in  the  story-book  of  the  nations. 

"Thy  dead  shall  live,"  are  words  that  must  in- 
evitably recur  to  the  writer  on  historical  themes 
whenever  he  turns  his  gaze  Eastward,  to  the  land 
long  dominated  Erez  Yisroel,  the  land  of  Israel.. 
When  the  legions  of  Titus  overran  Judea  in  the 
year  70  C.  E.,  laying  Jerusalem  waste,  burning  the 
Temple,  and  driving  the  Jews  before  the  tyrant's 
war-chariot  as  he  returned  to  Imperial  Rome 
crowned  with  a  victor's  laurels,  little  did  the  Ro- 

355 


356  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

mans  dream  that  the  small  people  whose  national- 
ity they  had  just  crushed  would  live  to  see  a  better 
day,  surviving-  even  their  own  proud  and  all-pow- 
erful empire  that  from  the  banks  of  the  Tiber  had 
cast  her  rule  over  nations  and  races  in  the  remotest 
parts  of  the  world.  Israel  was  indeed  uprooted 
from  his  native  soil,  and  the  peoples  among-  whom 
his  sons  and  daughters  were  thrown  tried  their  ut- 
most to  slay  the  soul  along  with  the  body  of  the 
Jew.  In  this  they  failed,  and  mere  separation  from 
his  father's  soil  did  not  cause  the  Jew  to  forget 
Jerusalem  but  rather  made  him  long  for  Zion  all 
the  more.  In  the  heated  furnace  of  persecution 
and  suffering  Israel  was  not  destroyed  and,  as  if 
by  miracle,  the  land  he  once  called  his  own  also 
remained  intact  and  safe,  the  temporary  possession 
of  many  nations  but  the  permanent  heritage  of 
none.  Throughout  the  centuries  Palestine  contin- 
ued as  the  land  without  a  people  while  exiled  Israel 
was  ever  conscious  of  being  a  people  without  a 
land,  and  across  the  oceans  and  deserts  which  sep- 
arated them  these  two,  the  land  which  once  was 
Israel's  and  the  people  long  expatriated,  kept  cast- 
ing longing  glances  at  each  other,  ever  hopeful  of 
the  final  coming  of  the  day  of  reunion.  At  last, 
when  faith  grew  weakest  and  hope  was  all  but  in 
its  last  nicker,  The  Day  arrived  in  the  wake  of  the 
greatest  and  bloodiest  of  all  recorded  wars.  To 
the  generation  of  our  day,  to  whom  the  doubts  of 
the  present  are  sweeter  than  were  to  its  fathers 
the  loyalty  and  the  faith  of  the  past,  it  has  strange- 
ly been  vouchsafed  to  behold  the  dawn  of  the  re- 
demption for  which  countless  generations  of  the 
past  had  prayed  and  pleaded  in  vain.  The  return 
of  Israel  to  Palestine  as  an  independent,  self-gov- 
erning nation,  now  made  possible  by  the  solemn 
promise  of  the  powerful  British  government,  the 
reunion  of  body  (the  land)  and  soul  (the  people) 


NATIONALIST    REVIVAL    AND    ZIONISM  357 

whose  separation  for  nearly  two  thousand  years 
had  made  both  alike  dead  to  themselves  and  to  the 
world,  is  one  of  the  miracles  which  comes  to  us  in 
the  wake  of  the  nations'  bloody  contest  strangely 
chosen  by  God  as  the  instrument  of  His  will  in  the 
world. 

Both  gentiles  and  Jews  have  willed  it  that  Pal- 
estine shall  never  pass  out  of  Jewish  memory  as 
the  one  land  in  the  world  to  which  the  Jew  may 
look  as  inalienably  his  own.  The  former  brought 
this  about  by  their  inhuman  persecution  of  the 
Jews,  which  had  the  effect  of  constantly  reminding 
the  latter  of  the  precariousness  of  their  lot,  and 
strengthened  their  solidarity  as  a  people  forced  to 
"dwell  apart";  and  a  Jewish  restoration  in  Pales- 
tine was  always  within  the  realm  of  possibility  so 
long  as  Israel  remained  a  political  or  a  social  pa- 
riah among  the  nations  of  the  earth.  It  meant  that 
Jews,  many  of  them,  would  go  back  to  the  ancient 
land,  first  as  unwelcome  guests  but  ultimately  with 
the  approval  of  its  temporary  masters  and  the  other 
nations,  thus  laying  the  foundation  of  a  new  and 
extensive  Jewish  settlement  to  be  reckoned  with 
in  course  of  time.  Indeed,  it  was  persecution  which 
brought  to  the  ancient  land  its  repeated  waves  oi 
Jewish  immigration,  small  as  these  waves  were  at 
any  and  all  times  prior  to  the  latest  colonization 
movement.  It  is  not  improbable  that,  but  for  the 
great  political  and  economic  distress  of  the  Jews 
of  Russia  and  Roumania  and  for  the  festering  sore 
of  Antisemitism  in  Central  and  Western  Europe, 
there  might  have  been  no  Palestinian  colonization 
in  our  day,  Theodore  Herzl  might  never  have 
written  his  "Judenstaat,"  and  modern  Zionism 
might  never  have  seen  the  light  of  day. 

As  a  romantic  dream,  however,  aside  from  the 
pressing  problems  of  the  times  which  drove  the 
Jews  to  thinking  of  Palestine  as  a  last  asylum,  the 


358  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

ideal  of  a  Jewish  restoration  in  the  Holy  Land, 
whether  by  miraculous  divine  intervention,  or 
through  self-help,  has  always  enlivened  the  hearts 
of  the  Jews  and  sometimes  those  of  non-Jews  as 
well.  In  Jewish  theological  thought  this  hope  of  a 
restoration  became  a  dogma,  centering  about  the 
belief  of  the  "Coming  of  the  Messiah,"  and  finding 
its  expression  in  the  prayer  book  and  in  innumer- 
able works  by  rabbis  and  lay-scholars.  It  fired  the 
imagination  and  stimulated  the  "love  of  Zion"  in 
the  hearts  of  the  great  Jewish  dreamers  of  the 
centuries,  as  illustrated  by  the  passionate  poetical 
outpourings  of  Jehuda  Halevi,  and  the  journey  to 
Palestine  in  the  thirteenth  century  of  the  famous 
Rabbi  Moses  Ben  Nahman  (Nahmanides)  result- 
ing in  the  re-establishment  of  Jewish  communities 
in  Jerusalem  and  other  places.  It  gave  rise  to 
pseudo-Messiahs  like  Sabbathai-Zevi  and  to  an  in- 
tensified study  of  cabalistic  mysticism  which  in  the 
seventeenth  century  found  its  stronghold  in  Safed. 
Without  assuming  any  shape  of  practicality,  the 
hope  of  an  ultimate  Jewish  return  to  the  land  of 
the  fathers  long  burned  bright  in  the  hearts  of  Is- 
rael and  for  many  centuries  was  probably  the  great- 
est factor  in  keeping  alive  the  sense  of  union  among 
the  Jews  of  all  lands.  Again  and  again  it  proved 
an  irresistible  drawing  force  to  the  scattered  rem- 
nants of  the  race,  rich  and  prominent  Jews  like  the 
Englishman  Montefiore  and  the  Frenchman  Cre- 
mieux  gratifying  their  deep-seated  affection  by  vis- 
iting the  waste  cities  and  contributing  to  their  re- 
building, while  their  poorer  co-religionists  went 
there  to  pray,  to  study  and  to  await  the  day  of 
death  when  they  would  find  eternal  rest  in  Zion's 
sacred  soil.  So  long  as  orthodox  Judaism  retained 
its  undisputed  sway,  Zion,  too,  the  love  and  the  as- 
piration for  it,  was  supreme  in  the  consciousness 
of  the  Jew,  remaining  the  one  bright  constellation 


NATIONALIST    REVIVAL    AND    ZIONISM  359 

on  his  darkened  horizon.  When  finally  modern- 
ism began  to  make  inroads  upon  the  old  faith,  here 
and  there  shaking  its  very  foundations,  Zion  was 
still  to  retain  its  hold  upon  the  soul  of  the  Jew,  the 
sentiment  for  it  remaining  the  same  though  the 
means  and  methods  of  attaining  it  changed  in  scope 
and  form.  Theology  gave  way  to  practical  consid- 
erations, the  expectation  of  divine  intervention  to 
an  appreciation  of  the  value  of  self-help.  Coloni- 
zation took  the  place  of  philanthropy,  and  where 
formerly  Jews  went  to  Palestine  to  pray  and  to  die 
they  now  went  there  to  live,  to  labor  and  to  recon- 
vert the  two-thousand-year-old  desert  into  a  flour- 
ishing garden.  Soon  this,  too,  was  to  assume  a 
broader  aspect.  Statesmanship  supplanted  back- 
door politics,  the  narrow  programme  of  agricul- 
tural settlements  was  replaced  by  that  of  a  legally 
recognized  Jewish  home-land.  Political  Zionism 
finally  appears  as  the  clear  and  finite  goal  of  what 
for  two  thousand  years  had  been  but  an  undefined, 
though  fervent  and  unquenchable,  hope. 

For  now  it  is  Jewish  Nationalism  which  comes 
to  the  fore  as  chief  among  the  factors  justifying 
and  making  possible  the  existence  of  the  Jew  as 
such.  The  idea  of  a  Jewish  race  and  nation  had 
never,  during  eighteen  hundred  years  of  the  Dis- 
persion, been  called  into  question.  It  was  taken 
for  granted  by  the  Christian  and  Mohammedan 
worlds  alike,  and  remained  unquestioned  by  the 
Jews  themselves.  They  felt  that  they  were  dis- 
tinct from  others,  both  by  religious  tradition 
and  racial  aspiration,  mere  sojourners,  if  not 
strangers,  in  the  lands  of  their  habitation  to  which 
they  were  politically  subject  but  in  which  they 
formed  a  separate  and  homogeneous  part.  The 
persecutions  heaped  upon  them  by  the  gentiles  only 
served  to  intensify  this  feeling.  Europe  remained 
but  a  land  of  Galut  (exile)  to  the  Jews,  their  po- 


360  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

litical  bondage  being  a  galling  yoke  from  which  the 
Almighty  in  his  own  good  time  would  assuredly 
deliver  them.  Under  the  prevailing  conditions 
there  had  been  no  need  and  there  could  be  no  de- 
sire for  a  definition  of  this  all-pervading  sense  of 
nationality.  The  turning  point  of  this  question 
came  for  the  Jew  with  the  French  Revolution  which 
resulted  in  the  initial  emancipation  of  the  Jews  in 
France  and  other  lands.  Placed  upon  an  almost 
equal  political  footing  with  their  non-Jewish  fel- 
lows, the  question  of  their  exact  status  at  once 
presented  itself  to  the  Jews.  The  partial  lightening 
of  the  yoke -inspired  the  hope  of  an  ultimate  com- 
plete removal  of  disabilities  when  the  Jew  would 
be  made  the  peer  of  the  gentile.  But  to  make  this 
attainable  the  Jew  must  cease  feeling  and  acting 
the  exotic.  Religion  alone  must  determine  his  dis- 
tinctiveness  in  the  community,  race  and  nationality 
with  all  their  corollaries  and  implications  must  go 
by  the  board.  This  new  attitude  of  many  Jews  first 
became  evident  in  the  answer  given  by  the  French 
Jews  in  the  Sanhedrin  convened  by  Napoleon  in 
1807.  Called  upon  to  defend  the  Jewish  religion 
and  knowing  that  their  political  status  in  the  world 
depended  upon  their  declarations,  those  Jews  nat- 
urally were  constrained  to  extreme  guardedness  in 
their  statements.  They,  however,  had  let  a  great 
historic  moment  pass  by  without  making  it  clear 
once  and  for  all  time  that  the  Jews,  though  loyal 
subjects  and  citizens  of  the  land  of  their  sojourn, 
are  nevertheless  a  race  with  national  hopes  of  their 
own  such  as  indeed  Judaism  has  never  ceased  to 
inspire.  This  stand  of  the  French  Jews  of  more 
than  one  hundred  years  ago  is  one  of  the  moral 
tragedies  of  the  Jewish  people  as  it  has  since  then 
determined  the  attitude  of  all  Jews  who,  for  the 
mess  of  pottage  of  personal  advantage,  are  ready 
to  throw  aside  their  nationalism  as  something  an- 


NATIONALIST    REVIVAL   AND    ZIONISM  361 

achronistic  and  hindering  to  Jewish  material  wel- 
fare. 

However,  this  disparity  between  religious  doc- 
trine and  worldly  advantage,  distasteful  as  it  really 
was  to  the  inherent  honesty  of  the  true  and  loyal 
Jew,  took  time  in  maturing  and  becoming  the  pre- 
vailing policy  of  a  considerable  number  of  the  peo- 
ple. For  a  long  time  the  old  and  deeply  indwell- 
ing race  sentiment  held  forth  despite  the  new  doc- 
trine of  the  political  utilitarians,  and  every  nowr 
and  then  it  cropped  up  in  some  new  preachment  or 
act  calculated  to  give  body  to  the  century-old  hope. 
In  1825  it  found  expression  in  the  chimerical  plan 
of  a  prominent  if  impractical  American  Jew,  Mor- 
decai  Manuel  Noah,  sheriff,  surveyor  of  the  port 
of  New  York,  ex-consul  to  Tunis,  editor,  play- 
wright and  author  of  a  book  of  travels.  A  native 
of  Philadelphia,  a  truly  free-born  American  with- 
out ever  having  borne  the  brunt  of  Jewish  suffer- 
ing, Noah  nevertheless  experienced  the  responsibil- 
ity which  was  his  toward  his  persecuted  brethren. 
Was  it  a  case  of  atavism,  the  springing  up  afresh 
of  an  old  Jewish  sentiment  in  a  distant  corner  of 
the  earth  where  it  could  least  be  expected?  Most 
likely  the  orthodox  faith  which  clung  to  Noah  as 
a  member  of  the  Portuguese  congregation  in  New 
York  was  responsible  for  the  stirring  of  the  old 
memories  and  the  revival  of  ancient  hopes.  In  the 
course  of  his  travels  in  Europe  and  Africa  Noah 
was  made  an  eye-witness  to  the  tragedy  of  his  peo- 
ple. The  anomalous  position  of  the  Jews  struck 
him,  the  free  and  liberal-minded  American  Jew,  as 
the  greatest  injustice  of  the  ages,  and  he  took  upon 
himself  the  task  of  saving  his  race  from  the  de- 
struction for  which  he  saw  it  headed.  He  realized 
that  Palestine  was  the  one  hope  of  the  Jew,  yet  he 
knew  that  because  of  both  its  political  and  economic 
condition,  that  land  was  not  yet  ready  to  receive 


362  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

its  exiled  children.  A  temporary  refuge,  a  sort  of 
Nachtasyl  (night  asylum)  was  therefore  impera- 
tive, and  for  this  no  country  could  serve  the  pur- 
pose better  than  America.  He  accordingly  went  to 
work  to  establish  a  "Jewish  State"  at  Grand  Island, 
near  the  city  of  Buffalo,  in  the  State  of  New  York. 
The  work  of  but  one  man,  be  he  ever  so  great  and 
capable,  without  the  consultation  of  the  people  at 
whose  welfare  he  was  aiming,  with  no  basis  of 
practicality  upon  which  to  build,  Noah's  scheme 
was  doomed  to  failure  from  its  birth.  "Ararat" 
was  a  thing  of  monumental  folly  and  a  natural  re- 
sult of  a  temperament  given  to  hazy  planning  and 
day-dreaming.  From  the  romantic  standpoint,  how- 
ever, it  was  one  more  illustration  of  the  deathless- 
ness  of  a  noble  hope  which  for  Israel  contained  the 
very  elixir  of  life  from  the  time  the  oath  not  to 
forget  Jerusalem  had  been  taken  at  Babylon's 
rivers  by  the  exiles  of  Judea.  His  failure  as 
"Judge"  and  governor  of  the  new  Jewish  "State" 
did  not,  however,  dampen  his  ardor,  but  rather 
served  to  place  him  in  the  more  logical  path  of  di- 
rect advocacy  of  a  Jewish  return  to  Palestine  with 
the  sanction  and  even  assistance  of  the  Christian 
powers.  It  was  in  1844  that  Noah  delivered  in  New 
York  his  memorable  "Discourse  on  the  Restora- 
tion of  the  Jews"  which  he  later  published  in  pam- 
phlet form,  and  in  which  he  makes  a  fervent  appeal 
to  the  nations  of  the  world  to  undo  the  wrong  the 
Jew  had  suffered  at  their  hands,  by  assisting  in  his 
political  restoration.  Speaking  as  a  statesman  and 
basing  his  arguments  on  the  international  situa- 
tion of  his  day,  he  says:  "The  political  events  in 
Syria,  Egypt,  Turkey  and  Russia  indicate  the  ap- 
proach of  great'  and  important  revolutions,  which 
may  facilitate  the  return  of  the  Je\vs  to  Jerusalem, 
and  the  organization  of  a  powerful  government  in 
Judea,  and  lead  to  that  millennium  which  we  all 


NATIONALIST    REVIVAL    AND    ZIONISM  363 

look  for,  all  hope  for,  all  pray  for."  He  also  re- 
minds the  Christians  that  it  is  in  the  interest  of 
their  religion  to  have  Palestine,  the  birthplace  of 
Jesus  and  the  Apostles,  become  a  Jewish  state 
again. 

In  France,  too,  as  early  as  1798,  an  anonymous 
Jewish  writer  makes  a  stirring  appeal  to  his  co-re- 
ligionists the  world  over  to  unite  in  a  petition  to  the 
French  government  to  secure  Palestine  for  its 
rightful  historic  owners,  an  argument  which  seems 
to  have  produced  some  effect  on  Napoleon  who,  in 
the  following  year,  issued  a  proclamation  to  the 
Jews  of  Asia  and  Africa  to  place  themselves  under 
his  banner  for  a  campaign  to  retake  Jerusalem  and 
re-establish  it  as  a  Jewish  political  centre.  Shrewd 
and  clear-eyed  Napoleon  wras  quick  to  perceive  the 
political  effect  such  a  proclamation  was  bound  to 
have,  if  not  on  the  Jews  of  the  Orient  then,  at  least, 
on  the  Jews  of  the  various  European  states,  with 
beneficial  results  to  the  vast  schemes  of  the  con- 
quest he  was  planning.  A  like  appeal  is  made 
about  thirty  years  later  by  the  eminent  French  Jew- 
ish savant,  Joseph  Salvador,  while,  under  the  influ- 
ence of  the  same  idea,  Benjamin  Disraeli,  whose 
heart  ever  remained  true  to  the  "rock  whence  he 
was  hewn,"  also  puts  expressions  of  the  wish  for 
restoration  in  the  mouths  of  a  number  of  his  heroes 
in  his  "Tancred,"  "Alroy,"  arid  "Coningsby." 

The  leaven  of  a  conscious  nationalism  was,  how- 
ever, at  work  even  among  those  Jews  with  whom 
theology  as  such  was  beginning  to  play  a  minor 
part.  The  nineteenth  century  is  pre-eminently  the 
century  of  nationalistic  revival  in  all  lands  and  the 
Jew,  too,  could  not  escape  the  effect  of  this  move- 
ment. The  breaking  up  of  the  Turkish  empire  had 
long  been  the  fervent  wish  of  Christian  Europe, 
and  even  in  England,  despite  her  role  as  the  tradi- 
tional defender  of  "the  Sick  Man  of  Europe,"  when 


364  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

the  Greeks  revolted  against  their  barbarous  Mo- 
hammedan task  masters  (1821),  none  had  been 
more  ardent  in  their  support,  both  morally  and 
actively,  than  many  of  the  best  sons  of  the  Island 
Kingdom,  some  of  whom,  as  instanced  by  Lord 
Byron,  even  gave  their  life  for  the  cause.  Not  only 
was  Greece  made  independent  (1829)  but  the  foun- 
dation was  laid  for  the  eventual  liberation  of  the 
other  Balkan  states.  Whatever  the  real  plans  of 
the  European  statesmen  with  regard  to  Turkey,  it 
was  inevitable  that  many  Jews,  still  under  the  in- 
fluence of  the  old  teachings  though  not  always  fol- 
lowers of  orthodox  theology,  should  harbor  the 
thought  that,  with  the  fall  of  that  empire  the  Jew 
might  once  more  come  into  his  own  in  the  ancestral 
land.  The  continuance  of  Turkey  on  the  sick-list 
kept  feeding  this  hope,  and  the  wish  became  all  the 
more  father  to  the  thought  with  the  renewal  in  a 
more  virulent  form  of  the  persecutions  of  the  Jews 
of  Russia  and  Roumania,  when  millions  of  them 
were  suddenly  faced  with  the  problem  of  emigra- 
tion, the  choice  being  left  them  of  going  either 
West,  to  free  and  prosperity-laden  America,  or 
East,  to  the  as  yet  poor  and  deserted  but  spiritually 
rich  and  even  economically  promising  "Erez  Yis- 
roel."  Many  of  them,  in  the  face  of  certain  pen- 
ury and  privation,  chose  the  latter. 

Nor  did  the  Christian  world  remain  wholly  in- 
different to  this  hope  of  the  Jew  for  rehabilitation 
in  Palestine.  Motives  both  political  and  theologi- 
cal played  their  part  in  the  Christian  espousal  of 
the  Jewish  cause  in  Palestine.  And  of  all  lands  in 
Europe  it  is  England  which  furnishes  the  largest 
number  of  such  Christian  Zionist  advocates,  fore- 
most among  them  being  Rollings  worth  who  (1852) 
regarded  a  Jewish  Palestine  as  the  best  means  of 
safeguarding  the  interests  of  England  in  India, 
Sir  Laurence  Oliphant  who,  probably  from  a  clan- 


GEORGE  ELIOT 


NATIONALIST    REVIVAL    AM)    ZIONISM  365 

destine  hope  of  proselytism  among  the  Jews,  plead- 
ed for  their  return  to  Palestine,  himself  even  going 
to  the  length  of  settling  in  the  Holy  Land  in  order 
to  personally  direct  the  colonization  plan  he  had 
conceived  (1879),  and  Cazalet,  a  British  Imperial- 
ist, who,  like  Hollingsworth,  looked  upon  a  Jewish 
settlement  in  Palestine  as  invaluable  to  the  British 
interests  in  Syria  (1879).  Neither  Oliphant's  nor 
Cazalet's  schemes,  though  supported  by  many  of 
their  prominent  countrymen,  could  secure  the 
friendly  support  of  the  Turkish  government,  with- 
out which  they  could  accomplish  nothing.  Nor  was 
the  moral  and  active  support  of  the  Jews  them- 
selves readily  forthcoming.  The  poorer  among 
them,  indeed,  were  ready  to  emigrate  to  Palestine 
despite  their  want  of  means  wherewith  to  begin  life 
under  the  new  conditions,  but  the  rich  and  influen- 
tial kept  aloof  from  the  movement,  and  the  great 
national  and  international  Jewish  bodies  were  im- 
movably antagonistic  to  it.  The  Christian  "Lovers 
of  Zion,"  baffled  by  this  indifference  of  the  Jews, 
time  and  again  sought  to  overcome  it,  and  many 
of  their  ablest  and  noblest  writers  and  philanthro- 
pists applied  themselves  to  the  task  of  converting 
the  Jew  to  Zionism  with  all  the  skill  and  ingenuity 
at  their  command.  Both  Alexander  Dumas  fils,  in 
his  play  "La  Femme  de  Claude,"  and  George  Eliot 
in  her  great  novel  "Daniel  Deronda"  (published 
1876),  place  in  the  mouths  of  their  Jewish  heroes 
sentiments  calculated  to  rouse  the  sympathy  and 
love  of  the  Jew  for  his  own  lost  heritage.  George 
Eliot's  insight  into  the  psychology  of  the  Jew  who, 
for  fear  of  being  accused  of  disloyalty  to  the  land 
of  his  birth  and  political  affiliation,  is  ready  to  dis- 
claim any  desire  for  a  revival  of  his  great  past, 
thus  remaining  untrue  to  himself  and  to  the  teach- 
ings of  his  faith,  is  wonderfully  portrayed  in  the 
words  of  Mordecai,  the  most  sympathetic  charac- 


366  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

ter  of  her  book.  She  clearly  perceives  that  in  the 
absence  of  a  national  existence  it  was  Judaism 
alone  that  kept  the  Jewish  race  alive  throughout 
the  ages  of  oppression,  but  that  with  the  removal 
of  political  disability  and  the  weakening  of  the  ties 
of  religion,  the  continuance  and  survival  of  the 
Jews  as  a  people  has  become  greatly  imperilled. 
The  world,  however,  she  tells  us,  cannot  look  on 
with  indifference  at  the  death-throes  of  a  people 
that  from  time  immemorial  has  leavened  and  fruc- 
tified the  soil  of  humanity,  and  the  Jews  themselves 
should  not  want  to  disappear  as  the  great  moral 
force  they  have  ever  proved.  It  is  in  Palestine 
where,  of  all  lands,  the  Jew  can  survive  and  retain 
his  old  ethnic  character,  bearing  out  the  Talmudic 
dictum  that  Israel,  his  Torah  and  his  land  are  one 
and  inseparable.  It  was  left  to  a  brilliant  Chris- 
tian woman  to  remind  the  Jews  of  their  real  place 
in  the  world,  and  to  chide  the  backsliders  among 
them  who  would  flee  from  their  non-escapable  duty. 

The  reasoned  and  impassioned  arguments  of 
George  Eliot's  hero  are  as  unanswerable  as  they 
are  appealing.  Says  Mordecai: 

"I,  too,  claim  to  be  a  rational  Jew.  But  what  is 
it  to  be  rational — what  is  it  to  feel  the  light  of  the 
divine  reason  growing  stronger  within  and  with- 
out? It  is  to  see  more  and  more  of  the  hidden 
bonds  that  bind  and  consecrate  change  as  a  de- 
pendent growth — yea,  consecrate  it  with  kinship; 
the  past  becomes  my  parent  and  the  future 
stretches  toward  me  the  appealing  arms  of  chil- 
dren. Is  it  rational  to  drain  away  the  sap  of  spe- 
cial kindred  that  makes  the  families  of  men  rich  in 
interchanged  wealth,  and  various  as  the  forests  are 
various  with  the  glory  of  the  cedar  and  the  palm? 
When  it  is  rational  to  say,  'I  know  not  my  father 
or  my  mother,  let  my  children  be  aliens  to  me,  that 
no  prayer  of  mine  may  touch  them/  then  it  will  be 


NATIONALIST    REVIVAL    AND    ZIONISM  367 

rational  for  the  Jew  to  say,  'I  will  seek  to  know  no 
difference  between  me  and  the  gentile,  I  will  not 
cherish  the  prophetic  consciousness  of  our  nation- 
ality— let  the  Hebrew  cease  to  be,  and  let  all  his 
memorials  be  antiquarian  trifles,  dead  as  the  wall- 
paintings  of  a  conjectured  race/  Yet  let  his  child 
learn  by  rote  the  speech  of  the  Greek,  where  he 
adjures  his  fellow-citizens  by  the  bravery  of  those 
who  fought  foremost  at  Marathon — let  him  learn 
to  say  that  was  noble  in  the  Greek,  that  is  the 
spirit  of  an  immortal  nation !  But  the  Jew  has  no 
memories  that  bind  him  to  action;  let  him  laugh 
that  his  nation  is  degraded  from  a  nation;  let  him 
hold  the  monuments  of  his  law  which  carried  with- 
in its  frame  the  breath  of  social  justice,  of  charity, 
and  of  household  sanctities — let  him  hold  the  en- 
ergy of  the  prophets,  the  patient  care  of  the  Mas- 
ters, the  fortitude  of  martyred  generations,  as  mere 
stuff  for  a  professorship.  The  business  of  the  Jew 
in  all  things  is  to  be  even  as  the  rich  gentile." 

But  it  is  only  ignorance  that  keeps  the  Jew  from 
a  full  appreciation  of  his  past  glories : 

"What  wonder?  The  night  is  unto  them,  that 
they  have  no  vision ;  in  their  darkness  they  are  un- 
able to  divine;  the  sun  is  gone  down  over  the 
prophets,  and  the  day  is  dark  about  them ;  their  ob- 
servances are  as  nameless  relics.  But  which  among 
the  chief  of  the  gentile  nations  has  not  an  igno- 
rant multitude?  They  scorn  our  people's  ignorant 
observance ;  but  the  most  accursed  ignorance  is  that 
which  has  no  observance — sunk  to  the  cunning 
greed  of  the  fox,  to  which  all  law  is  no  more  than 
a  trap  or  the  cry  of  the  worrying  hound.  There  is 
a  degradation  deep  down  below  the  memory  that 
has  withered  into  superstition.  In  the  multitude  of 
the  ignorant  on  three  continents  who  observe  our 
rites  and  make  the  confession  of  the  divine  Unity, 
the  soul  of  Judaism  is  not  dead.  Revive  the  or- 


368  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

game  centre :  let  the  unity  of  Israel  which  has  made 
the  growth  and  form  of  its  religion  be  an  outward 
reality.  Looking  toward  a  land  and  a  polity,  our 
dispersed  people  in  all  the  ends  of  the  earth  may 
share  the  dignity  of  a  national  life  which  has  a 
voice  among  the  peoples  of  the  East  and  the  West 
— which  will  plant  the  wisdom  and  skill  of  our  race 
so  that  it  may  be,  as  of  old,  a  medium  of  transmis- 
sion and  understanding.  Let  that  come  to  pass, 
and  the  living  warmth  will  spread  to  the  weak  ex- 
tremities of  Israel,  and  superstition  will  vanish,  not 
in  the  lawlessness  of  the  renegade,  but  in  the  illu- 
mination of  great  facts  which  widen  feeling  and 
make  all  knowledge  alive  as  the  young  offspring  of 
beloved  memories." 

The  fulfillment  of  the  Jew's  real  destiny  in  the 
world  will  come  only  through  his  national  resurrec- 
tion which  the  Jews  must  themselves  bring  about: 

"I  say  that  the  effect  of  our  separateness  will 
not  be  completed  and  have  its  highest  transforma- 
tion unless  our  race  takes  on  again  the  character 
of  a  nationality.  That  is  the  fulfillment  of  the  re- 
ligious trust  that  moulded  them  into  a  people,  whose 
life  has  made  half  the  inspiration  of  the  world. 
What  is  it  to  me  that  the  ten  tribes  are  lost  un- 
traceably,  or  that  multitudes  of  the  children  of 
Judah  have  mixed  themselves  with  the  gentile  pop- 
ulations as  a  river  with  rivers?  Behold  our  people 
still!  Their  skirts  are  spread  afar;  they  are  torn 
and  soiled  and  trodden  on;  but  there  is  a  jewelled 
breastplate.  Let  the  wealthy  men,  the  monarchs  of 
commerce,  the  learned  in  all  knowledge,  the  skilful 
in  all  arts,  the  speakers,  the  political  counselors, 
who  carry  in  their  veins  the  Hebrew  blood  which 
has  maintained  its  vigor  in  all  climates,  and  the 
pliancy  of  the  Hebrew  genius  for  which  difficulty 
means  new  device — let  them  say,  'we  will  lift  up  a 
standard,  we  will  unite  in  a  labor  hard  but  glorious 


NATIONALIST    REVIVAL   AND    ZIONISM  369 

like  that  of  Moses  and  Ezra,  a  labor  which  shall  be 
a  worthy  fruit  of  the  long  anguish  whereby  our 
fathers  maintained  their  separateness,  refusing  the 
ease  of  falsehood/  They  have  wealth  enough  to 
redeem  the  soil  from  debauched  and  paupered  con- 
querors ;  they  have  the  skill  of  the  statesman  to  de- 
vise, the  tongue  of  the  orator  to  persuade.  And 
is  there  no  prophet  or  poet  among  us  to  make  the 
ears  of  Christian  Europe  tingle  with  shame  at  the 
hideous  obloquy  of  Christian  strife  which  the  Turk 
gazes  at  as  at  the  fighting  of  beasts  to  which  he 
has  lent  an  arena?  There  is  store  of  wisdom 
among  us  to  found  a  new  Jewish  polity,  grand,  sim- 
ple, just,  like  the  old — a  republic  where  there  is 
equality  of  protection,  an  equality  which  shone  like 
a  star  on  the  forehead  of  our  ancient  community, 
and  gave  it  more  than  the  brightness  of  Western 
freedom  and  the  despotisms  of  the  East.  Then 
our  race  shall  have  an  organic  centre,  a  heart  and 
brain  to  watch  and  guide  and  execute;  the  out- 
raged Jew  shall  have  a  defense  in  the  court  of  na- 
tions, as  the  outraged  Englishman  of  America. 
And  the  world  will  gain  as  Israel  gains.  For  there 
will  be  a  community  in  the  van  of  the  East  which 
carries  the  culture  and  the  sympathies  of  every 
great  nation  in  its  bosom :  there  will  be  a  land  set 
for  a  halting  place  of  enmities,  a  neutral  ground 
for  the  East  as  Belgium  is  for  the  West.  Diffi- 
culties? I  know  there  are  difficulties.  But  let  the 
spirit  of  sublime  achievement  move  in  the  great 
among  our  people,  and  the  work  will  begin." 

Yet  even  this  wonderful  appeal  of  England's 
greatest  woman  writer  fell  on  deaf  ears  among  the 
smug  and  self-seeking  Jews  of  England  as  of  other 
Western  lands  who  remained  too  deeply  engrossed 
with  their  newly-acquired  emancipation,  and  too 
short-sighted  to  see  the  coming  of  the  fast-moving 
storm.  Here  and  there  some  noble  Jewish  soul 


37O  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

would  be  stirred  to  thinking.  "Are  the  Jews  still 
a  people,"  asks  Professor  David  Kaufmann  (in  his 
essay  on  "George  Eliot  and  Judaism"),  "a  sickly 
body,  indeed,  but  one  to  whom  youth  and  health 
may  return,  or  a  bleached  and  scattered  heap  of 
bones?  Are  these  bones  destined  ever  again  to 
live  and  move  ?"  Upon  the  mass  of  Western  Jew- 
ry, however,  her  words  had  no  immediate  effect, 
and  George  Eliot  died  (1880)  without  the  satisfac- 
tion of  seeing  her  preachment  take  root  in  the 
hearts  of  her  Jewish  countrymen.  A  time  there 
came,  however,  but  a  few  years  after  her  remark- 
able diagnosis  and  prognostication,  when  her  words 
stood  out  in  a  new  light  even  before  many  of  the 
Jews  of  the  West.  The  change  came  in  the  wake 
of  the  disastrous  anti-Jewish  riots  in  Russia  of 
1881-1882. 

We  shall  here  consider  one  by  one  the  several 
heroic  figures  to  whose  teaching  and  activity  Zion- 
ism is  indebted  for  its  progress,  unfoldment  and 
final  success  as  the  greatest  of  all  movements  in 
Jewish  history.  If  the  army  of  the  Jewish  nation- 
alists was  to  come  mostly  from  the  East,  its  leader- 
ship was  in  nearly  every  instance  a  product  of  the 
West.  From  the  general  apathy  which  obsessed 
Western  Jewry  in  the  matter  of  a  Jewish  restora- 
tion in  Palestine  there  remained  immune  a  few 
choice  spirits,  some  of  whom  were  destined  to  be- 
come the  fathers  and  pioneers  of  the  movement  in 
its  various  and  successive  stages.  Standing  out 
foremost  among  these  were  Samuel  David  Luz- 
zatto,  the  renowned  scholar  and  professor  at  the 
rabbinical  school  at  Padua  who,  in  1854,  stated 
that  "Palestine  must  be  peopled  by  Jews  and  tilled 
by  them,  so  that  it  may  flourish  economically  and 
agriculturally,  and  take  on  beauty  and  glory"; 
Rabbi  Judah  Alkalai  (died  18/8)  of  Semlin,  Croa- 
tia, who  wrote  "Goral  la-Adonoy"  ("A  Lot  for  the 


NATIONALIST    REVIVAL   AND    ZIONISM 

Lord,"  Vienna,  1857)  and  other  works,  containing 
several  practical  suggestions  for  the  resettlement 
of  Palestine;  Zebi  Hirsch  Kalischer  (1795-1874), 
the  eminent  rabbi  of  Thorn,  Prussia,  who,  amidst 
his  arduous  rabbinical  duties  and  profound  Tal- 
mudical  studies,  found  time  to  write  a  little  book 
in  Hebrew,  "Derishat  Ziyyon"  (Lyck,  1862),  which 
became  the  elementary  text-book  of  the  Zionist 
ideal;  and  Moses  Hess  (1812-1875),  the  noted  Ger- 
man editor  and  Social-Democrat,  of  whom  more 
will  be  said  here  presently.  Of  the  men  thus  men- 
tioned Alkalai  was  the  first  among  orthodox  rabbis 
to  regard  the  Jewish  return  to  Palestine  as  a  prac- 
tical thing  subject  only  to  the  will  of  the  Jews  them- 
selves. The  Jews  should,  namely,  unite  into  a  sort 
of  stock-company,  like  a  steamship  or  railroad 
trust,  thereby  acquiring  the  means  to  induce  the 
Sultan  to  cede  Palestine  as  a  tributary  land  like 
other  lands  similarly  controlled  by  him.  But  where 
Alkalai's  plan  never  emerged  from  the  theoretical 
stage,  Kalischer's  suggestion  proved  more  prac- 
tical and  enlisted  the  support  of  many  prominent 
Jews.  His  plan  was,  namely,  the  colonization  of 
Palestine  on  a  vast  scale  by  sending  there  the  poor 
Jews  of  Eastern  Europe  to  engage  in  agriculture 
along  with  the  indigent  Jews  already  resident  there, 
thus  saving  the  latter  from  the  indignity  of  living 
on  the  halukkah  charity  and  at  the  same  time  re- 
deeming the  waste  land  from  its  enforced  idleness. 
Already  in  a  previous  work,  "Emunah  Yesharah" 
(A  Straight  Faith),  published  in  1860,  Kalischer 
expresses  ideas  which,  coming  from  a  strictly  or- 
thodox rabbi,  were  startling  for  their  modernity 
and  their  radical  departure  from  the  accepted 
views  on  the  Messiah  and  God's  plans  for  Israel. 
The  "Derishat  Ziyyon"  is  a  logical  complement  to 
the  other  work,  insisting  as  it  does  on  self-help  not 


372  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

merely  as  the  only  hope  of  the  Jew  but  as  being 
even  mandatory  and  imperative  from  the  religious 
point  of  view.  True  to  his  convictions,  Kalischer, 
despite  his  advanced  age,  visited  many  cities  in 
Germany  where  he  advocated  his  pet  scheme,  and 
under  the  influence  of  his  eloquent  pleading  many 
colonization  societies  were  founded,  the  first  being 
the  one  formed  in  1861  in  Frankfort-on-the-Main. 

One  result  of  his  agitation  was  the  establishment 
of  a  colony  near  the  Sea  of  Tiberias  which,  how- 
ever, was  short-lived.  But  a  far  more  important 
result  of  his  work  was  to  ensue.  For  it  was  under 
the  influence  of  his  ideas  that  the  leaders  of  the 
Alliance  Israelite  Universelle,  notably  Charles  Net- 
ter  and  Albert  Cohn,  began  to  show  a  greater  in- 
terest in  the  condition  of  the  Jews  of  the  Orient 
and,  in  1870,  founded  near  the  city  of  Jaffa  the 
"Mikveh  Israel  Agricultural  School"  which,  for  a 
time  at  least,  performed  noble  services  to  the  cause 
of  colonization,  though  it  did  not,  on  the  whole, 
fulfill  the  hopes  placed  in  it  by  the  Jewish  commu- 
nity of  Eastern  Europe. 

Yet  the  greatest  service  performed  by  Kalischer 
to  the  nationalist  cause  was  in  the  impetus  his 
preachment  gave  to  Moses  Hess  for  the  inculcation 
of  his  own  ideas  on  the  same  question.  Hess  was 
himself  a  romantic  figure  in  Jewish  life,  an  adven- 
turer in  international  problems,  a  rolling-stone  in 
idealism,  in  turn  Liberal,  Social-Democrat  and 
Anarchist  in  politics,  an  opponent  of  religious  re- 
forms though  himself  a  non-conformist  to  the  Or- 
thodoxy he  defended,  a  man  of  irregular  education 
yet  a  profound  student  of  philosophy  and  political 
economy,  a  trenchant  writer  and,  in  his  day,  one 
of  the  ablest  of  editors  and  journalists  in  Germany. 
Though  possessed  of  a  good  rabbinical  education 
he,  for  a  time,  remained  aloof  from  his  people  and 
religion  until  brought  back  to  the  Jewish  fold  both 


NATIONALIST    REVIVAL    AND    ZIONISM  373 

from  the  recognition  of  his  people's  part  in  the  up- 
building of  the  moral  world  and  from  a  profound 
sense  of  justice  for  all  the  oppressed  races  of  the 
earth.  It  was  the  latter  which  turned  Hess,  the 
cosmopolitan  and  world-citizen,  into  the  ardent 
Jewish  Nationalist  whose  "Rome  and  Jerusalem" 
("Rom  und  Jerusalem,"  Leipsic,  1862),  written 
under  the  influence  of  Kalischer's  works,  has  be- 
come the  great  classic  of  Zionist  literature.  Writ- 
ten in  the  form  of  letters,  the  book  produced  in  the 
camp  of  the  nationalists  an  impression  not  unlike 
that  of  Samson  Raphael  Hirsch's  "Nineteen  Let- 
ters" amon^"  the  orthodox  Jews.  Hess's  book,  too, 
is  poetical  in  thought,  if  not  in  form,  and  the  ideas 
it  expresses  and  advocates  are  supported  by  a  vast 
store  of  historical,  theological  and  philosophical  in- 
formation. A  follower  of  Spinoza,  whom  he 
quotes,  he  applies  the  latter's  teachings  on  the  im- 
mortality of  the  soul  to  the  Jews  as  a  nation.  Be- 
fore the  annihilation  of  Israel's  national  existence, 
he  tells  us,  Jewish  teaching  is  silent  on  the  question 
of  eschatology.  It  is  only  with  the  dispersion  that 
the  rabbis  began  to  inculcate  their  doctrine  of  life 
after  death  which,  however,  became  intertwined 
and  identical  with  the  teaching  on  the  coming  of 
the  Messiah  and  its  implication  of  a  Jewish  na- 
tional resurrection.  The  Jews,  in  other  words,  can 
be  destroyed  as  a  race  neither  by  suicide  nor 
through  outside  agencies.  With  bitter  and  poign- 
ant humor  Hess  ridicules  those  so-called  "progres- 
sive" German  Jews  who  deny  that  the  Jews  still 
form  a  racial  entity,  and  are  eager  to  obliterate  all 
traces  of  their  physiological  Jewish  type.  Unfor- 
tunately for  them,  this  Jewish  type  is  indestructible 
and  naught  will  avail  to  smoothen  the  curly  hair  of 
the  Jew  or  to  straighten  his  nose.  These  Jewish 
assimilationists  have  turned  their  back  upon  their 
people,  and  have  gone  to  the  length  of  outdoing 


374  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

the  Christian  Germans  in  their  Teutomania  mere- 
ly out  of  the  selfish  hope  of  safeguarding  thereby 
their  political  emancipation.  They  have  aban- 
doned their  ancient  fatherland  for  the  new  one 
from  the  viewpoint  of  the  old  Roman  proverb: 
"Ubi  bene,  ibi  patria"  (my  fatherland  is  there 
where  I  fare  well).  Their  reptilian  attitude,  how- 
ever, has  not  helped  them  any,  for  still  the  Ger- 
mans condemn  them  and  their  race,  and  the  cry 
of  "Hep,  Hep,"  is  still  heard  in  the  streets  of  Ger- 
man cities  as  before.  To  gain  the  respect  of  their 
gentile  neighbors  the  Jews  must  first  learn  to  re- 
spect themselves  by  cherishing  their  past  national 
glories. 

Reform  in  Judaism,  that  Reform  which,  in  its 
German  pattern,  was  merely  a  bid  for  civil  and 
political  emancipation,  is  for  Hess  a  special  ob- 
ject of  scorn  and  derision.  The  Jewish  Reform- 
ers have  converted  Judaism  into  a  humanistic  cult 
scarcely  distinguishable  from  Free  Masonry.  Na- 
tionalism properly  conceived  and  construed  is  not 
inimical  to  humanity  but  rather  an  aid  to  it,  for 
it  gives  every  racial  and  nationalistic  entity  its 
one  supreme  chance  to  contribute  to  the  perfection 
of  the  human  race  as  a  whole.  What  England 
is  in  the  domain  of  commerce  and  industry, 
France  in  the  world  of  social  sympathies,  Ger- 
many in  the  sphere  of  philosophy,  America  in  the 
realm  of  universal  peace — as  the  great  refuge  of 
various  races  living  harmoniously  side  by  side- 
that  Israel  must  once  again  accomplish  in  its  own 
peculiar  domain,  that  of  the  spirit,  provided  it  is 
once  more  rehabilitated  in  its  national  life  in  Pal- 
estine. Nationalism  is  therefore  preferable  to 
political  emancipation — which,  at  its  best,  is  none 
too  secure  for  the  Jew — and  between  the  two  the 
Jew  can  have  but  one  choice.  The  decline  of  the 
Ottoman  empire  and  the  weakening  of  the  po- 


MOSES  HESS 
(1812-1875) 


NATIONALIST    REVIVAL    AND    ZIONISM  375 

litical  influence  of  the  Pope  make  the  chances  of 
the  Jew  for  the  fulfillment  of  his  ancient  hopes 
the  brightest  in  all  his  history. 

Touching  and  rhapsodical  as  were  the  argu- 
ments of  Hess  and  his  plea  for  an  organized  col- 
onization in  Palestine,  his  book  in  its  day  in- 
fluenced neither  the  great  multitudes  of  the  East- 
ern Jews,  probably  because  of  its  highly  idiomatic 
German  style,  nor  even  the  German  Jews,  who,  as 
was  not  unexpected,  betook  themselves  sceptically 
to  his  preachment.  It  did,  however,  lend  encour- 
agement to  a  small  band  of  idealists  already  in 
sympathy  with  the  cause,  men  like  David  Gordon, 
editor  of  "Ha-Maggid"  in  Lyck,  and  Elijah  Gutt- 
macher,  even  as  it  spurred  Hirsch  Kalischer  him- 
self to  an  active  propaganda  of  the  plans  he  had 
advocated  before  the  advent  of  Hess.  Its  greatest 
usefulness,  however,  was  attained  in  the  effect  it 
produced  upon  the  great  Jewish  historian,  Hein- 
rich  Graetz  who,  in  1864,  wrote  an  essay  on  "The 
Rejuvenation  of  the  Jewish  Race,"  comparing  the 
position  of  the  Jews  in  Europe  with  that  of  the 
dry  bones  in  the  vision  of  Ezekiel.  It  was  still 
many  years  before  the  Zionist  ideal  could  emerge 
from  its  theoretical  stage  to  assume  tangible  pro- 
portions. So  long  as  Israel  in  Western  Europe 
continued  to  hug  the  dream  of  political  equality 
and  economic  security  not  only  for  themselves 
but  even  for  their  Russian  and  Roumanian  co- 
religionists, there  was  little  likelihood  of  the  Zion- 
ist hope  becoming  the  possession  of  any  except 
the  visionaries  of  whom  Israel  always  had  not  a 
few  but  who,  for  the  most  part,  were  without  in- 
fluence— and  the  far-sighted  leaders,  who,  while 
able  and  accurate  diagnosticians  of  their  people's 
malady,  were  still  too  few  in  number  to  be  able 
to  sway  the  Jewish  multitudes.  Zionism  'could 


376 


HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 


become  an  actuality  in  Jewish  life  only  by  external 
pressure. 

The  new  blood-covenant  by  which  Israel  was 
once  again  to  renew  his  allegiance  to  his  national 
ideal  was  not  long  in  coming.  The  shattering  of 
the  hope  of  equality  and  full  emancipation  came 
with  the  formation  of  the  Christian  Socialist  party 
in  Germany,  which,  as  already  pointed  out  in  a 
preceding  chapter,  with  the  backing  of  Bismarck 
and  the  Imperial  government,  was  a  movement  di- 
rected in  the  main  against  the  liberal  movement 
where  the  Jews  had  been  very  active,  and  which 
seized  upon  the  ever  latent  anti-Jewish  feeling  as  a 
means  to  further  its  own  ends.  A  wave  of  reaction 
against  the  Jews  struck  the  Western  part  of  the 
continent,  and  soon  made  itself  felt  in  Eastern 
Europe.  In  Roumania  the  government  failed  to 
live  up  to  the  promise  exacted  from  her  by  Dis- 
raeli to  enfranchise  her  Jews  as  part  of  the  con- 
dition by  which  she  was  to  receive  her  full  inde- 
pendence, and  the  replacement  of  Lord  Beacons- 
field  by  Gladstone  as  Premier  of  England  (1880) 
resulted  in  the  Treaty  of  Berlin  becoming  a  dead 
letter  in  so  far  as  the  Jews  were  concerned.  The 
ever  precarious  situation  of  the  Jews  of  Russia 
grew  worse  toward  the  close  of  the  reign  of 
Alexander  II,  and  the  accession  to  the  throne  of 
Alexander  III  unleashed  the  evil  forces  of  the  em- 
pire for  their  work  of  horror.  Soon  Jewish  blood 
flowed  freely  in  the  streets  of  many  large  Rus- 
sian cities  and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  men  and 
women,  driven  from  their  homes,  destitute  and 
starving,  were  forced  to  take  to  the  wanderer's 
staff.  To  the  majority  of  these  unfortunates 
America  became  the  great  goal,  and  thither  they 
hied  as  to  the  one  place  of  refuge  where  security 
and  freedom  were  still  to  be  found.  On  their  way 
to  the  New  World  these  refugees  passed  through 


NATIONALIST    REVIVAL    AND    ZIONISM  377 

German  and  Austrian  cities,  many  of  them  going 
also  by  way  of  French,  Belgian,  Dutch  and  Eng- 
lish ports  of  embarkation.  The  Jews  of  Western 
Europe  were  thus  made  eye-witnesses  to  the 
misery  of  their  brethren;  perhaps  not  a  few  of 
them  felt  that  the  sorely-afflicted  Russian  Jews 
were  but  the  vicarious  atonement  for  their  own 
comparative  safety  and  peace,  and  the  fear  must 
have  stolen  into  their  hearts  that  what  was  pos- 
sible in  Russia  might  not,  after  all,  be  impossible 
in  their  own  countries.  It  was  a  rude  awakening 
from  a  most  pleasant  dream,  yet  it  was  a  shock 
necessary  for  the  restoration  of  the  Jew's  sense  of 
equilibrium  and  his  recovery  from  the  opiate  of 
a  pseudo-freedom  of  which  he  had  partaken  al- 
together too  freely.  Commiseration  with  their 
hapless  co-religionists  meant  also  the  strengthen- 
ing of  Jewish  solidarity,  and  perhaps  for  the  first 
time  in  many  an  age  Jews  of  many  lands  felt 
themselves  truly  united.  The  philanthropic  aid 
so  liberally  given  to  the  pogrom-hunted  Jews  by 
German  and  other  co-religionists  reacted  upon  the 
givers  in  bringing  to  them  the  realization  of  the 
historic  responsibility  of  all  Jews  toward  one  an- 
other. In  inward  feeling,  if  not  exactly  in  pro- 
fessed sentiment,  these  Jews  experienced  the  sense 
of  their  common  racialism.  Mere  brothers  in  faith 
living  in  different  lands  could  not  have  felt  to- 
ward each  other  the  sense  of  pity  and  the  broth- 
erly concern  which  was  felt  by  the  Western  Jews 
in  the  crisis  of  1881  and  1882.  Nationalism,  how- 
ever, still  remained  dormant  with  most  of  them 
who  lacked  the  courage  to  renounce  their  favorite 
theory  of  national  unity  and  homogeneity  with  the 
people  in  whose  midst  they  dwelt.  The  large  na- 
tionalistic revival  was  to  come  mainly  from  among 
the  stricken  Jews  themselves  who  knew  that  even 
as  their  sufferings  were  inflicted  upon  them  as 


3/8  IlfSTORY    OF    TTITC    JEWS 

members  of  a  certain  national  group,  so  their  sal- 
vation and  ultimate  redemption  could  come  only 
through  national  unity  and  solidarity.  The  very 
immigrants  going  to  America  in  search  of  a  new 
home  carried  this  conviction  with  them  across  the 
ocean;  with  those  who  remained  behind  it  became 
the  leaning  staff  for  their  continued  existence  as 
Jews.  In  sentiment,  all  that  was  loyal  in  Russian 
Jewry  was  now  facing  Zionward;  in  practice  this 
revived  nationalism  was  soon  to  result  in  a  coloni- 
zation experiment  such  as  had  never  before  been 
seen  among  the  Jews  throughout  their  long  and 
eventful  history. 

The  story  of  this  colonization  is  as  inspiring  in 
its  romantic  features  as  it  is  important  in  the  his- 
tory of  a  great  economic  and  political  movement. 
The  first  attempt  for  colonization  in  Palestine  had 
already  been  made,  in  1878,  with  the  founding  of 
the  "Petah  Tikvah"  colony,  in  the  vicinity  of  Jaffa, 
which  met  with  varying  degrees  of  success  and 
for  some  years  had  a  precarious  existence.  Ul- 
timately things  took  a  more  favorable  turn  and 
to-day  it  is  the  largest  of  all  Palestinian  colonies. 
Yet  Petah  Tikvah  was  not  founded  by  new-com- 
ers but  by  Jews  from  Jerusalem  and  other  places 
who  had  lived  in  the  Holy  Land  for  some  years, 
and  it  is  not  therefore  included  among  the  re- 
sults achieved  by  the  new  nationalist  revival.  It 
is  possible  that  the  meagre  success  of  Petah  Tikvah 
in  its  first  years  would  have  discouraged  any  fur- 
ther efforts  in  that  direction.  The  new  enthusiasm 
for  Zion  and  Jerusalem  which  followed  the  bloody 
Russian  pogroms,  however,  heeded  no  obstacles 
and  disregarded  all  signs  of  failure.  The  major- 
ity of  the  Russian  "Hobebe  Ziyyon"  (Lovers  of 
Zion),  as  they  were  called,  were  young  men, 
mostly  university  students,  who  organized  them- 
selves into  several  immigrant  groups  under  the 


EDMO.ND   DE    ROTHSCHILD 
(b.    1845) 


NATIONALIST    REVIVAL    AND    ZIONISM  379 

organization  name  of  B.  Y.  L.  U.  (V.)  the  initials 
of  the  Biblical  verse  Bet  Ya'akob  Lekhu  ve-Nelkho 
(House  of  Jacob,  Come  and  Let  Us  Go).  Of  these 
the  Kharkov  group  was  the  first  to  get  to  Palestine 
and  through  its  efforts  the  "Rishon  le-Ziyyon" 
(First  in  Zion)  colony  was  established  in  1882. 
Without  any  funds,  with  no  proper  implements  or 
tools  of  any  sort  for  their  work,  these  young  en- 
thusiasts threw  themselves  upon  the  sacred  soil 
which  they  broke  loose  with  their  bare  hands,  en- 
dured all  possible  hardships,  for  a  long  time  going 
without  the  most  elementary  necessities  of  modern 
life,  and  displayed  a  most  heroic  spirit  of  the  zeal- 
ous and  determined  pioneer.  In  the  end  they  suc- 
ceeded, though  only  after  a  number  of  them  had 
succumbed  to  the  ravages  of  disease  due  to  the  un- 
healthy surroundings  and.  to  under-nourishment. 
To-day  this  colony  is  the  pride  of  the  entire  new 
Yishub  (settlement),  and  from  it  have  come  many 
of  the  founders  of  other  colonies. 

At  about  the  same  time  other  immigrants,  like- 
wise without  means,  but  endowed  with  unquench- 
able zeal  for  the  cause,  limitless  patience  and  su- 
preme confidence  in  their  ultimate  success,  laid 
the  foundation  of  "Rosh  Pinah"  (The  Chief  Cor- 
ner Stone)  in  Galilee,  "Wadi  el-Hanin"  or  "Nes 
Ziyyonah"  (The  Banner  Zion  ward)  in  Judea,  and 
"Zikron  Ya'akob"  (The  Memorial  of  Jacob)  colony 
in  Samaria.  The  latter,  named  after  the  father 
of  Baron  Edmund  de  Rothschild  of  Paris,  who 
now  appears  on  the  scene  as  the  Nadib  (bene- 
factor) of  the  entire  colonization  enterprise,  was 
settled  by  refugees  from  Roumania.  Rapidly  the 
number  of  these  colonies  grew,  scarcely  a  year 
passing  without  seeing  one  or  more  founded.  Thus 
was  "Yesod  ha-Ma'alah"  (The  Upper  Foundation) 
established  in  1883,  and  "Ekron,  or  "Mazkeret  Bit- 
ya"  and  "Ghederah"  in  1884.  That  year  also  saw 


30  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

the  beginnings  of  the  "Mishmar  ha-Yarden"  (The 
Watch  on  the  Jordan).  Beer-Tobiyah  (The  Well 
of  Tobias)  was  started  in  1888,  "Rehobot"  in  1890, 
"Ain  Zeitun"  and  "Mozah"  in  1891,  "Metullah" 
and  "Hartuf"  in  1896  and  "Mahanayim"  in  1899 
(by  Jews  from  Galicia).  From  these  colonies  mi- 
nor settlements  soon  branched  out  under  different 
names  and  with  separate  administrations.  Here 
and  there,  too,  individual  settlements  were  formed 
by  private  persons,  some  of  which  gradually  grew 
into  townlets.  Most  of  these  had  to  go  through  a 
period  of  hard  struggle  before  they  could  become 
self-supporting,  though  nearly  all  of  them  were  in 
a  nourishing  condition  at  the  time  of  the  outbreak 
of  the  Great  War,  the  most  prosperous  of  them 
being  Zikron  Ya'akob,  the  favorite  colony  of 
Baron  Rothschild.  It  was  the  latter  who  insured 
the  success  of  the  Yishub  by  his  unstinted  gen- 
erosity, and  to  Lawrence  Oliphant,  the  English 
Christian  dreamer  and  Palestinian  pioneer,  the 
credit  belongs  of  having  been  the  first  to  interest 
the  great  philanthropist  in  the  colonization  scheme. 
It  is  estimated  that  the  sum  expended  by  the  Baron 
in  support  of  the  colonies  amounted  to  no  less 
than  twenty  million  dollars.  While  financial  aid 
was  constantly  sent  to  Palestine  from  "Hobebe 
Ziyyon"  societies  and  from  individuals  in  many 
parts  of  the  globe,  it  is  clear  that  without  the 
support  of  Rothschild  the  new  colonization,  un- 
dertaken by  men  without  means  and  mostly  lack- 
ing in  all  agricultural  experience,  could  not  have 
succeeded.  Rothschild  not  only  advanced  money 
to  the  colonists  on  the  installment  payment  plan, 
and  at  very  small  interest,  but  built  houses,  erected 
synagogues  and  other  public  buildings,  secured 
the  latest  models  of  machinery,  and  built  up  the 
wine  industry  of  the  country  by  installing  the 
great  wine  presses  in  the  large  Yekeb  (wine  store) 


NATIONALIST    REVIVAL    AND    ZIONISM  381 

of  Zikron.  Other  industries,  too,  were  made  pos- 
sible by  the  initiative  of  the  Baron.  Even  this 
boon  of  Rothschild's  favoritism,  however,  proved 
a  not  unmixed  blessing,  for  it  served  to  make  the 
colonists  less  self-reliant.  This,  in  the  end,  led 
the  Nadib  to  transfer  his  interests  in  the  colonies 
to  the  Jewish  Colonization  Association  (the  I.  C. 
A.)  which  introduced  new  methods  and  adminis- 
tered the  various  settlements  in  a  more  scientific 
manner,  thereby  greatly  enhancing  their  pros- 
perity. 

To  these  two  main  factors,  the  liberality  of 
Baron  Rothschild,  and  the  administrative  efficiency 
of  the  I.  C.  A.  is  due  the  phenomenal  success 
which,  despite  all  the  discouragement  consequent 
upon  the  many  difficulties  of  the  earlier  years,  at- 
tended the  Palestinian  colonization  in  the  last  dec- 
ade prior  to  the  outbreak  of  the  war.  At  the  same 
time  one  should  not  lose  sight  of  the  very  con- 
siderable material  help,  and  the  even  greater  moral 
assistance  rendered  to  the  cause  by  the  Jewish 
people  at  large,  principally  through  the  "Hobebe 
Ziyyon"  societies  which  sprang  up  through- 
out Russia,  Germany,  Galicia,  England  and  the 
United  States.  The  Syrian  colonization  fund 
which  had  been  founded  in  England  by  Christians 
with  Lord  Shaftesbury  at  its  head,  did  much  to 
encourage  the  industrial  and  agricultural  devel- 
opment among  the  Jews  of  Palestine.  It  was 
from  Russia,  howrever,  that  the  greatest  assistance 
came  in  the  shape  both  of  money  and,  wrhat  is  of 
greater  importance,  of  human  material.  For  of 
the  one  hundred  thousand  Jews  who  migrated  to 
Palestine  in  the  last  forty  years,  the  greatest  num- 
ber came  from  that  country.  It  was  in  Russia, 
too,  that  the  movement  Palestineward,  far  from 
abating,  kept  on  growing  with  the  passing  of  the 
years,  thus  exercising  a  moral  effect  upon  the 


382  HISTORY   OF    THE    JEWS 

"Lovers  of  Zion"  in  all  other  lands.  The  vision- 
aries and  dreamers  there  were  the  inspiration  of 
many  men  of  wealth  and  of  practical  affairs  in 
the  empire,  and  there  were  not  wanting  among 
them  keen-eyed  prophets,  who  could  read  the 
signs  of  the  times  aright  in  their  prognostication 
of  the  Jewish  future  by  means  of  the  Palestinian 
revival.  Two  such  prominent  Russian  Jews,  each 
of  them  occupying  a  niche  of  his  own  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  Zionist  movement  which  both  alike  in 
their  own  various  ways  helped  to  foster  and  en- 
hance, shall  occupy  our  attention  here  for  a  while. 
One  of  these  was  Dr.  Leo  Pinsker,  the  first  great 
nationalist  leader  to  come  from  among  the  Rus- 
sian Jews. 

Leo  Pinsker  (Tomashev,  Piotrkow  Government, 
i82i-Odessa,  1891)  was  the  first  Russian  Jew  to 
duly  appreciate  the  Palestinian  movement  for  its 
political  value,  rather  than  for  the  mere  religious 
or  race  sentimentality  it  represented.  Like  Moses 
Hess  before  him,  and  Theodore  Herzl  after  him, 
Pinsker  came  back  to  his  people  as  a  confirmed 
Jewish  nationalist  only  after  spending  many  years 
as  a  "watcher  of  the  vineyards"  of  others,  in- 
dulging in  dreams  of  ultimate  Jewish  emancipa- 
tion in  all  lands  with  the  growth  of  the  ideal  of 
cosmopolitanism.  With  Hess  he  had  the  ad- 
vantage over  Herzl  in  his  acquaintance  with  Jew- 
ish literature  which  he  obtained  at  the  hands  of 
his  learned  father,  Simha  Pinsker,  the  renowned 
Semitic  scholar  and  archaeologist  (died  Odessa, 
1869).  Nevertheless,  his  Jewish  learning  did  not 
for  many  years  avail  to  make  Leo  Pinsker  the  con- 
vinced nationalist  he  subsequently  became  until 
after  the  riots  of  1881.  Distinguished  physician 
and  noted  humanitarian,  acknowledged  as  an  in- 
tellectual leader  not  only  in  Odessa  but  through- 
out Russia,  his  enlistment  in  the  cause  of  the 


NATIONALIST    REVIVAL    AXD    ZIONISM  383 

"Hobebe  Ziyyon"  was  the  greatest  moral  aid  the 
movement  could  have  received,  giving  it  the  very 
impetus  it  was  in  need  of  in  those  years  of  un- 
certainty and  hazy  sentimentality.      But  the  im- 
portance of  Pinsker  lies  not  in  his  mere  advent 
in  the  ranks  of  the  workers  for  the  "return"  to 
Palestine,  but  in  the  theories  advanced  by  him  in 
his  famous  German  brochure  "Autoemancipation" 
(1883),  published  anonymously  under  the  name  of 
"A  Russian  Jew."     \Yhether  Pinsker  had  ever  read 
Perez  Smolenskin's  "Am  Olam"  (The  Eternal  Peo- 
ple) published  ten  years  previously,  or  whether  the 
ideas   advocated  by   Hess  and   George   Eliot  had 
ever  influenced  him,  the  conclusions  he  arrives  at 
are  surprisingly  similar  to  those  of  the  first-men- 
tioned authors,  his  method  of  argumentation  alone 
being  peculiarly  his  own.     The  misfortune  of  the 
Jews,  he  says,  has  been  that  throughout  the  ages 
the  outside  world,  and  even  they  themselves,  re- 
garded  them   not   as   a   people   with   definite   na- 
tional  claims  but  as   scattered  atoms   of   a  dead 
nation    with    whom    every   land    and   government 
could  do  as  it  pleased.     In  this  wrongful  attitude 
towards  the  Jew  the  Jews  were  themselves  to  blame 
since  they  have  not  sought  to  change  it,  and  by 
their  indifference  to  and  even  denial  of  their  na- 
tional character  have  even  justified  it.     The  Jews' 
hope  lies  not  in  political  emancipation,   which  is 
but  a  charitable  concession  on  the  part  of  the  na- 
tions, but  in  self-emancipation,  by  their  once  again 
proclaiming    their   national    homogeneity    and   by 
placing  it  upon  the  basis  of  territorial  acquisition, 
preferably  in  Palestine  but,  if  need  be,  elsewhere. 
Pinsker   places   the   security  and   preservation   of 
the  Jewish  people  above  the  desire  of  acquiring 
Palestine   which   to   him   is   but   a   means   to   the 
greater  end.     To  him   Palestine  is  not   a   "Holy 
Land"  in  any  other  except  the  religious  sense,  and 


384  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

since  those  things  which  made  Palestine  holy,  the 
idea  of  monotheism,  and  the  Bible,  were  still  in- 
tact with  the  Jew,  they  could  serve  to  make  any 
other  land  just  as  holy  if  brought  and  preserved 
there  as  part  of  the  national  culture  of  the  Jew. 
The  main  thing  is  the  acquisition  of  a  suitable 
land  as  the  Jew's  permanent  national  abode.  In 
this  Pinsker  anticipated  by  about  twenty  years 
the  Territorialist  movement  of  some  fifteen  years 
ago. 

Despite  his  non-insistence  upon  Palestine  as  the 
prime  goal  of  Jewish  nationalism,  Pinsker  imme- 
diately became  the  chief  inspiration  of  the  Pales- 
tinian movement,  around  whom  rallied  the  best  in- 
tellectual forces  of  Russian  Jewry,  like  Moses 
Loeb  Lilienblum,  trenchant  literary  critic  and  fear- 
less advocate  of  religious  reforms  in  both  Hebrew 
and  Russian,  Dr.  Max  Mandelstamm,  famous  ocu- 
list of  Kiev,  S.  P.  Rabbinovich,  Hebrew  publicist 
and  historian,  and  Prof.  H.  Schapiro  who,  though 
a  Russian  Jew,  was  occupying  the  chair  in  higher 
mathematics  at  the  university  of  Heidelberg.  Lit- 
erary men  like  the  Hebrew  editor  Alexander 
Zederbaum  of  St.  Petersburg  and  the  Russian  nov- 
elist and  publicist  Lev  Levanda,  of  Vilna,  support- 
ed Pinsker  in  their  publications  while  others  like 
S.  J.  Fuenn  of  Vilna  and  K.  W.  Wissotzky  of 
Moscow  were  actively  enlisted  in  the  cause.  In 
foreign  lands,  too,  Pinsker's  ideas  found  an  echo, 
the  most  important  utterance  on  the  subject  com- 
ing from  Dr.  Isaac  Ruelf,  the  genial  rabbi  and 
well-known  author  of  Memel,  in  Prussia,  who 
shortly  after  the  appearance  of  Pinsker's  pamph- 
let, and  obviously  under  its  influence,  published  his 
booklet  "Arukat  Bat  Ammi"  (The  Healing  of  My 
People),  warmly  advocating  the  colonization  of 
Palestine  as  the  surest  remedy  for  all  the  racial 
ills  of  the  Jews.  While  not  avowedly  committed 


NATIONALIST    REVIVAL    AND    ZIONISM  385 

to  Palestine  Pinsker  yet  realized  that  the  "Hobebe 
Ziyyon"  constituted  the  only  enthusiastic  and  con- 
siderable group  for  the  furtherance  of  his  plans 
and  he  accordingly  yielded  to  the  importunity  of 
his  friends  and  admirers  to  become  the  head  of 
the  movement  in  Russia.  A  petition  was  ad- 
dressed to  the  government  for  permission  to  es- 
tablish a  society  for  the  support  of  Palestinian 
colonization,  and  Zederbaum,  as  a  resident  of 
St.  Petersburg  and  one  close  to  government  cir- 
cles, undertook  to  use  all  of  his  influence  with 
department  officials  to  secure  the  desired  permit, 
an  object  which  was  attained  only  after  many 
years  of  painstaking  endeavor.  Lilienblum  became 
the  secretary  of  the  organization  under  Pinsker 
and  it  was  indeed  he  who  performed  the  greatest 
part  of  its  work,  often  influencing  and  directing  its 
policies.  Lilienblum  was  himself  the  most  zealous 
spokesman  of  the  aims  of  the  movement  in  Rus- 
sia, which  were  the  settlement  of  Palestine  to  the 
exclusion  of  every  other  land.  He  writes  to  his 
friend,  the  poet  J.  L.  Gordon:  "Under  no  con- 
dition can  I  agree  writh  you  that  the  Jews  should 
go  to  Palestine  by  way  of  America.  For  our  pur- 
pose, one  Zealot  in  Jerusalem  is  preferable  to  a 
hundred  Edisons  in  America."  Pinsker  was  con- 
tent to  remain  the  head  of  the  movement  without 
strongly  asserting  his  own  views  or  seeking  to  en- 
force any  special  policies  of  his  own.  He  visited 
Berlin,  Paris  and  other  great  centres  where  he 
interested  leading  Jews  in  the  work.  It  was  soon 
found  necessary  to  have  a  conference  of  the  va- 
rious colonization  societies  in  order  to  unify  the 
work  and  to  decide  upon  the  best  methods  to  be 
employed.  The  government  of  Russia  not  having 
yet  sanctioned  the  existence  of  the  organization, 
the  holding  of  the  meeting  was  impossible  with- 
in the  empire,  and  the  representatives  of  the  move- 


386  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

nient  accordingly  assembled  in  Kattowitz,  Prussia, 
on  the  one  hundredth  birthday  of  Moses  Monte- 
fiore  in  1884  (November  6),  at  least  fifty  organ- 
izations sending  representatives.  It  was  the  first 
of  the  international  Zionist  conferences  to  be  held 
and  anticipated  by  thirteen  years  the  first  Zionist 
Congress  of  Bazel. 

But  while  the  work  of  colonization,  notwith- 
standing all  hindrances,  was  progressing  satisfac- 
torily, while  the  nationalist  ideal  was  steadily 
gaining  in  strength,  newr  organizations  forming 
in  various  parts  of  the  world  and  new  prophets 
every  now  and  then  arising  to  sound  the  trumpet 
of  the  great  revival,  while  in  America  Emma 
Lazarus  was  writing  her  soul-stirring  poems  on 
the  tragedy  of  the  Russian  Jew,  and  her  impas- 
sioned articles  on  the  Jewish  national  revival  in 
Palestine  in  both  Jewish  and  general  periodicals, 
and  while  in  Heidelberg  Prof.  Herman  Schapiro 
was  indulging  the  dream  of  the  founding  of  a 
Jewish  university  in  Jerusalem,  and  Dr.  Joseph 
Chazanowicz,  of  Byelostok,  was  even  then  laying 
the  foundation  of  the  Jewish  National  Library  at 
Jerusalem,  there  was  one  man  in  Russia  living  a 
more  or  less  secluded  life  in  a  little  village  in  the 
Government  of  Kiev,  of  whom  little  was  heard  in 
all  this  nationalist  activity  but  who  in  a  very  short 
time  was  to  make  himself  known  as  the  enfant 
terrible  of  the  Zionist  Movement  in  all  of  its  phases, 
the  severe  though  at  the  same  time  wholesome 
critic  of  both  the  colonization  scheme  and  the  po- 
litical aims  of  Zionism.  This  man  was  Asher 
Ginzberg,  already  spoken  of  in  connection  with 
the  progress  of  Hebrew  literature  in  Russia,  and 
best  known  to  fame  as  Ahad  Haam,  the  one  man' 
in  Russia  destined  to  outlive  most  of  the  heads 
of  the  movements  who  had  incurred  his  displeas- 
ure and  felt  the  keen  edge  of  his  criticism,  the 


NATIONALIST    REVIVAL    AND    ZIONISM  387 

man  who  came  into  the  ranks  of  the  "Hobebe 
Ziyyon,"  both  as  a  sympathizer  and  as  an  op- 
ponent, and  who  gradually  succeeded  in  winning 
over  the  opposition  to  his  way  of  thinking  so 
that  the  one-time  private  in  the  ranks  soon  be- 
came a  general  and  the  leader  of  a  mighty  host. 
Reared  in  a  wealthy.  Hasidic  household,  thor- 
oughly versed  in  Hebrew,  the  Talmudical  and 
philosophical  writings,  self-taught  in  a  number  of 
European  languages  and  their  literatures,  pos- 
sessed of  an  analytical  mind,  and  by  nature  en- 
dowed with  the  gift  of  a  clever  and  skillful  ar- 
gumentator,  Ginzberg  loomed  upon  the  horizon  as 
a  latter-day  incarnation  of  a  Solomon  Maimon 
or  a  Vilna  Gaon,  and  he  soon  became  recognized 
as  the  greatest  intellectual  force  in  that  portion  of 
Russian  Jewry  which  had  made  itself  vocal 
through  its  periodical  press  and  in  its  number 
included  even  several  representative  pulpiteers, 
in  other  words,  the  progressive  nationalists,  the 
immediate  product  of  the  Haskalah  generation.  He 
came  into  the  Palestinian  movement  as  a  novice 
but  before  long  became  one  of  the  dominating 
personalities  in  its  councils.  At  first  a  follower 
of  Pinsker,  the  pupil  soon  proved  himself  stronger 
in  every  way  than  his  master,  even  as  he  was  by 
natural  ability  and  greater  mental  acumen  more 
worthily  a  leader  of  men  than  was  the  gentle  and 
unassuming  Pinsker.  The  year  1886,  when  Asher 
Ginzberg  removed  from  his  quiet  home  in  the  vil- 
lage of  Gopishitza  to  Odessa,  may  be  looked  upon 
as  a  turning  point  in  the  history  of  the  national- 
ist movement  in  Russia.  For  the  accession  to  the 
ranks  of  the  "Odessa  Committee"  of  so  capable 
and  fearless  a  critic  meant  the  production  by 
Russia  of  the  one  really  great  intellectual  leader 
who,  throughout  his  activity  of  more  than  a  gen- 
eration as  a  leader  of  men  and  of  thought,  never 


388  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

wavering  in  his  opinion  once  his  judgment  was 
formed,  had  the  rare  good  fortune  of  seeing  his 
plans  mature  and  his  hopes  shared  by  a  vast  mul- 
titude of  his  contemporaries  the  world  over. 

Ahad  Haam's  successful  leadership  within  Rus- 
sian Jewry  has  been  attributed  mainly  to  his  rare 
attainments  as  a  writer^  and  only  secondarily  to 
his  perspicacity  about  the  sorrowful  state  of  the 
Jews  in  all  lands,  his  intuition  into  the  psychology 
of  his  people  and  his  correct  diagnosis  of  the  ail- 
ments  obsessing   it.     Trained    for   many   genera- 
tions   to    revere    a    superior    mentality    wherever 
found,   to  admire  learning  above  all  else,  and  to 
pay  homage  to  the  one  possessed  of  a  leshon  lim- 
mudim,  a  learned  tongue,  the  Russian  Jews  were 
quick  to  perceive  the  unusual  merits  of  the  young 
writer   who,   until   his   thirty-third   year  had   not 
published  anything  and  was  scarcely  known   for 
his  latent  gifts  to  any  except  a  fewT  close  friends. 
Alexander  Zederbaum,  the  Nestor  of  the  Hebrew 
periodical  literature  in  Russia,  who  did  more  than 
any  other  man  to  produce  writers  of  talent  and 
force,  was  the  immediate  cause  of  Ginzberg's  lit- 
erary revelation,   for  it  was  he  who  importuned 
him  to  contribute  to  his  Ha-Meliz,  and  succeeded  in 
obtaining  from  him  in  1889  his  first  article,  entitled 
"Lo  Zeh  ha-Derek"  (Not  This  Is  the  Way).    As  a 
pure  literary  venture  the  article  was  found  to  be 
so   unusually   superior   to   the  general   output  of 
even  the  oldest  and  best  known  writers  of  the  day, 
its    diction,    clear    and    forceful    and    richly    em- 
broidered with  expression  from  the  philosophical 
and   cabalistical   writings    of   the   preceding   cen- 
turies, was  so  thoroughly  charming  in  contrast  to 
the  publicistic  style,  until  then  in  vogue,  of  either 
a  purely-Biblical  or  a  Talmudical   Hebrew,   and, 
withal,  its  logic  was  so  keen-cutting  and  irrefut- 
able— it  took  the  Hebrew-reading  world  by  sur- 


ASIIER  GINZBERG 
'.Iliad    Haain"    (b.     1857) 


NATIONALIST    REVIVAL    AND    ZIONISM  389 

prise.     Henceforth  the  batlanut  or  stylistic  sloven- 
liness by  which  the  Hebrew  press  had  been  marked, 
was  to  flee  before  the  new  standard  set  by  the 
master  stylist  of  Odessa.    But  Ahad  Haam  proved 
that  he  was  more  than  just  a  skilled  fencer  with 
words  and  a  clever  manipulator  of  phrases.     His 
real  fame  rests  upon  his  ideas,  though  it  was  his 
lucidity  and  charm  of  expression  which  first  recom- 
mended him  to  the  public  and  made  his  ideas  so 
popular  with  Russian  Jewry.    To  think  deeply  and 
at  the  same  time  write  clearly  and  fascinatingly 
was  too  rare  a  combination  in  modern  Hebrew 
literature    not   to   make   the    deepest    impression. 
Ahad  Haam  was  different  from  others  both  as  a 
stylist  and  as  a  logician,  hence  the  sensation  he 
caused  by  his  first  appearance  in  the  literary  arena. 
And  the  difference  lay  more  especially  in  his  at- 
titude    toward     accepted     and     conventionalized 
things.     In  him  the  Jewish  world  beheld  a  new 
iconoclast,  but  not  one  whose  sole  object  was  to 
destroy  the  given  structure  of  Jewish  nationalist 
aspirations  in  order  to  erect  upon  its  ruins  an  en- 
tirely new  building,  but  rather  to  so  change  its 
architecture  as  to  make  it  conform  with  the  greater 
and  more  imperative  needs  and  requirements  of 
the  Jewish  people.     Thus,  in  the  face  of-  all  the 
frenzied  activity  for  Palestinian  colonization  and 
notwithstanding  the  influence  of  Pinsker  and  his 
hold  upon  the  mass  of  nationalist  workers,  Ahad 
Haam  dared  express  the  bitter  truth  that,  useful 
as  the  work  in  itself  seemed  from  many  a  stand- 
point, and  desirable  as  it  unquestionably  was,  the 
entire  project  and  the  manner  of  its  execution  was 
altogether    too    inadequate    to   meet    the    require- 
ments   of    the    national    ideal.      The    colonization 
work  was  taking  away  from  the  people  energies 
indispensable  in  other  and  more  important  direc- 
tions.    For   Israel  still  was  not  a   people   in  the 


39°         -  HISTORY    OF    THE   JEWS 

true  sense  of  the  word,  whose  only  need  was  a  ter- 
ritory to  live  on,  houses  to  be  sheltered  in  and 
farms  and  gardens  to  subsist  on.  The  two  thou- 
sand years  of  exile  in  various  lands  and  the  inces- 
sant persecutions  heaped  upon  him  have  so  dis- 
torted his  national  soul  as  to  make  him  unfit  for 
the  task  of  nation-building  without  first  under- 
going a  period  of  preparation.  "Of  what  avail," 
he  asks,  "is  a  land  ready  for  us  if  we  are  not  ready 
for  the  land?"  Colonization  in  Palestine  as  then 
carried  on,  was  but  an  answer  to  the  egotistic 
and  materialistic  cravings  of  the  Jewish  masses. 
The  people  were  persecuted,  were  driven  from 
their  homes,  were  destitute  and  hungry,  and  to 
supply  their  immediate  needs  the  colonization 
scheme  is  offered,  attractively  pictured  in  order 
to  lure  on  would-be  pioneers  to  go  to  the  Holy 
Land.  Not  thus  is  a  nation  built.  Its  desire  for 
national  existence  must  come  from  within,  and 
must  be  sufficiently  strong  to  remain  unflinching 
in  the  face  of  peril,  suffering  and  sacrifice.  Self- 
interest  and  personal  ambition  in  the  individual 
must  give  \vay  before  the  interests  of  the  nation 
as  a  whole,  and  the  people  must  be  prepared  to 
labor  and  endure  in  the  present  for  a  goal  which 
may  not  be  reached  save  in  a  distant  future  and 
in  the  life  of  later  generations. 

The  article  was  an  explosive  hurled  into  the  camp 
of  the  nationalists  which  did  not  fail  to  go  off 
with  loud  report.  What  Ahad  Haam  did  was 
nothing  less  than  the  begging  of  the  entire  ques- 
tion of  colonization.  Yet,  in  effect,  it  was  the 
placing  of  the  ideal  of  Jewish  nationalism  upon 
so  lofty  a  plane  as  to  be  out  of  reach  of  the  bulk 
of  the  people.  If  the  galut,  or  life  in  the  Dis- 
persion, made  for  the  distortion  of  the  Jew's  na- 
tional soul,  it  is  clear  that  this  soul  could  best  be 
normalized  and  straightened  out  to  its  natural 


NATIONALIST    REVIVAL    AND    ZIONISM  39 1 

shape  not  by  continuing  in  the  galitt  but  by  first 
settling  in  the  land  of  the  fathers,  and  to  this  end 
colonization  was  the  best  and  most  practical  means. 
A  babel  of  discussions,  learned  and  otherwise,  now 
arose  in  the  Hebrew  press,  attacks  were  levelled  at 
the  intrepid  critic  from  all  sides  which  he  skill- 
fully parried  in  his  own  coldly  logical  and  analyt- 
ical manner.  He  stubbornly  held  on  to  his  doctrine 
that  the  Jews  should  look  to  Palestine  as  a  place 
of  permanent  habitation  only  after  they  fully 
grasped  the  sublime  meaning  of  nationalism  and 
the  duties  it  imposed  upon  them  for  the  safeguard- 
ing of  the  Jewish  future.  With  religion  losing  its 
hold  upon  the  masses,  the  national  ideal  must  now 
step  in  to  take  its  place  as  the  life-principle  of 
the  Jewish  race.  Unlike  Lilienblum  and  others 
with  him,  Ahad  Haam  did  not  disparage  the  large 
emigration  to  America  instead  of  to  Palestine. 
Since  Palestine  was  not  economically  able  to  re- 
ceive a  considerable  immigration,  it  were  best  that 
all  Jews  in  immediate  need  of  succor  and  of  finan- 
cial returns  for  their  labor  should  go  to  America. 
Palestine  is  an  ideal  which  must  wait  for  its  real- 
ization, or  if  it  must  be  settled  in  our  time  and 
through  agricultural  colonies,  then  let  it  be  done 
through  organized  and  concerted  action  and  let 
only  such  Jews  migrate  there  as  are  idealistically 
inclined,  and  endowed  with  the  necessary  patience 
for  the  fulfillment  of  their  hopes.  A  haphazard 
way  of  settlement  by  persons  who  expect  imme- 
diate prosperity,  would  only  endanger  the  entire 
plan  and  indefinitely  postpone  its  realization.  In 
order  to  acquaint  himself  more  fully  and  at  first- 
hand with  conditions  in  Palestine,  Ginzberg  thrice 
journeyed  there,  each  time  returning  with  a  mes- 
sage ("Emet  M'erez  Yisroel,"  The  Truth  About 
Palestine)  bearing  out  his  contention  that  the 
colonization  movement  was  in  need  of  a  radical 


392  HISTORY    OF   THE   JEWS 

reorganization,  and  that  Jewish  hopes  in  Pal- 
estine were  being-  injured  rather  than  helped  by 
the  undue  optimism  and  the  exaggerated  reports 
which  the  zealots  were  circulating  among  the 
people.  After  ten  years  of  agricultural  experi- 
mentation he  found  that  the  colonies  were  still 
far  from  self-supporting  and  still  dependent 
upon  the  aid  of  Rothschild  and  other  philan- 
thropists, that  they  were  still  tyros  in  the  work, 
preferring  to  have  the  soil  tilled  by  the  Arabs 
rather  than  themselves.  Worse  still,  he  found 
that  the  settlers  were  still  in  the  state  of-  de- 
moralization they  had  brought  with  them  from 
Europe,  that  they  were  notoriously  disunited, 
jealous  of  and  inimical  to  each  other,  and  that 
they  were  abusing  the  freedom  made  possible  by 
the  governmental  lassitude  of  the  Turks  by  tak- 
ing advantage  of  the  ignorant  Arab  population 
native  to  the  land,  thus  making  them  the  mortal 
enemies  of  the  Jews  for  all  future  times.  On 
visiting  the  ancient  and  crumbling  "Western 
Wall"  in  Jerusalem  in  1891  and  seeing  there  the 
motley  crowd  of  Jews  from  all  lands  and  climes 
loudly  wailing  and  moaning  in  their  prayers,  the 
thought  came  to  him:  "These  stones  symbolize 
the  hurban  (ruin)  of  our  land,  and  these  per- 
sons— that  of  our  people.  Which  of  these  two 
ruins  is  the  greater?  And  for  which  of  them 
should  we  weep  the  more  ?  A  land  may  get  ruined, 
yet  if  the  people  still  retain  their  life  and  strength 
there  will  arise  a  Zerubbabel,  an  Ezra  or  a  Nehe- 
miah,  and  their  followers,  to  restore  and  build 
it  anew;  but  if  a  people  becomes  ruined  who  will 
rise  for  it  and  whence  is  its  help  to  come?" 

And  these  words  give  us  the  very  kernel  of  the 
nationalistic  philosophy  evolved  and  elaborated  by 
Ahad  Haam  in  the  many  essays  contained  in  the 
four  volumes  of  his  writings  which  appeared  un- 
der the  title  of  "Al  Parashat  Derakhim"  (At  the 


DR.   JOSEPH   CHAZANOWICZ 
(1844) 


NATIONALIST    REVIVAL    AND    ZIONISM  3Q3 

Parting  of  the  "Ways,  Berlin,  1902-1913).  Be- 
tween the  two,  the  land  and  the  people,  the  latter 
comes  first,  though,  unlike  Pinsker  and  other 
leaders,  Ahad  Haam  realizes  that,  since  the  con- 
tinuance of  Jewish  life  is  dependent  upon  terri- 
torial acquisition,  such  a  land  can  be  no  other 
than  Palestine.  Yet — and  herein  lies  the  real  im- 
portance of  Ahad  Haam  as  the  new  interpreter  of 
the  Jewish  nationalist  ideal — even  Palestine  is  of 
value  only  in  so  far  as  it  is  best  adapted  for  the 
preservation  of  the  national  culture  of  the  Jews. 
The  real  tragedy  here  is  not  that  of  the  Jewish 
people  but  of  the  Jewish  national  spirit  which  can 
never  thrive  in  any  other  land  outside  of  Pales- 
tine. Palestine  will  never  solve  the  economic  or 
social  problems  of  the  Jews,  the  majority  of  whom, 
owing  to  their  numbers,  will  always  remain  in 
other  lands.  It  will,  however,  solve  the  problem  of 
the  Jewish  soul,  by  being  a  safe  refuge  and  a  cen- 
tre of  Jewish  cultural  growth  which,  in  its  purely 
Jewish  environment  such  as  Palestine  alone  can 
offer,  will  not  be  hindered  by  such  obstacles  as 
the  Jew  meets  with  on  every  step  in  Europe  and 
America.  Because  of  this  new  definition  of  an  old 
ideal  Ahad  Haam  will  always  occupy  a  place  of 
his  own  in  the  history  of  the  Zionist  movement. 
"Cultural  Zionism"  is  the  term  by  which  his  phil- 
osophy is  denominated,  and  it  is  the  only  phase 
of  the  nationalist  movement  which  has  made  the 
greatest  strides  forward  and  bids  fair  to  win  out 
in  the  end,  it  being  now  recognized  that  neither 
the  colonization  nor  the  political  phase  of  Zionism 
can  be  worth  much  to  the  Jew,  be  they  crowned 
with  ever  so  great  a  success,  unless  and  until  they 
subserve  the  cultural  aspirations  of  the  people. 
That  Ahad  Haam  was  more  than  a  mere  theorist 
can  be  seen  from  his  attempt  to  crystallize  the 
sentiment  aroused  by  his  preachment  into  an  or- 


394  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

ganized  movement.  Acclaimed  as  leader  by  many 
of  the  more  prominent  Jews  of  Russia,  he,  in 
1890,  organized  a  secret  order  by  the  name  of 
"B'ne  Moshe"  (The  Sons  of  Moses)  whose  motto 
was  Tehiyat  Yisroel  al  Admat  Yisroel  (Israel's 
Revival  upon  Israel's  Soil).  In  the  programme  of 
this,  society,  which  was  drawn  up  by  Ahad  Haam 
himself  in  a  remarkable  article  entitled  "Derekh 
ha-Hayyim"  (The  Way  of  Life),  he  lays  down  the 
principles  of  spiritual  Zionism  which  "aims  at  a 
reclamation  not  only  of  the  land  but  also  of  the 
people"  whose  object  is  "not  only  to  build  (for 
the  present)  but  also  to  plant  (for  the  future)/'' 
and  not  only  "by  means  of  the  hands  but  also 
through  the  spirit."  The  term  nationalism  is  here 
lifted  above  its  material  connotation  to  one  of 
moral  worth  which  only  men  of  proved  convic- 
tions can  truly  value.  The  same  thought  has 
since  dominated  all  of  the  public  and  literary  ac- 
tivities of  Ginzberg,  his  part  in  the  upbuilding  of 
Hebrew  publishing  houses  in  Russia,  his  founding, 
in  1896,  of  the  "Haschiloah,"  the  great  literary 
monthly,  and  his  co-operation  in  the  work  of  the 
Odessa  Committee  which,  in  partnership  with  the 
Alliance  Israelite  has  established  the  Hebrew 
Gymnasium  at  Jaffa.  The  B'ne  Moshe,  while  last- 
ing only  eight  years,  and  probably  never  having 
a  membership  of  more  than  two  hundred,  was 
nevertheless  most  effective  in  leavening  Zionist 
thought  with  that  spiritual  element  which  made 
it  of  more  enduring  worth.  At  least  a  handful  of 
leading  men  in  Russia  was  determined  that  the 
new  Jewish  national  life  in  process  of  construction 
shall  not  be  vitiated  through  petty  and  inadequate 
plans  and  undertakings  wholly  incommensurate 
with  its  lofty  historic  meaning. 

But  whatever  the  enthusiasm  aroused  in  Rus- 
sia, Roumania  and  Galicia  through  the  practical 


NATIONALIST    REVIVAL    AND    ZIONISM  395 

work  of  Pinsker  and  the  cultural  idealism  of  Ahad 
Haam,  the  movement  in  these  countries  could 
make  but  little  headway  without  the  co-operation 
of  the  great  Jewish  communities  of  Western 
Europe.  And  Western  Jewry  was  still  indifferent 
and  even  hostile  to  the  plan.  Russian  Jewry  with 
its  five  to  six  millions  of  souls  did  indeed  possess 
the  enthusiasm  and  the  moral  courage  to  flock 
around  the  banner  of  a  resurrected  Jewish  na- 
tionalism, but  owing  to  its  political  disabilities  and 
the  social  ostracism  it  was  laboring  under  it  largely 
remained  but  an  impotent  mass.  "Hibbat  Ziyyon" 
(Love  for  Zion),  as  the  pre-Herzlian  phase  of 
Zionism  was  styled,  was  largely  an  underground 
movement  in  the  reign  of  Alexander  III  as  in  that 
of  Nicholas  II,  it  had  constantly  to  cope  with  great 
and  often  insurmountable  difficulties,  and  if  it 
could  accomplish  anything  at  all  it  was  only  by 
means  of  back-door  politics,  through  the  century- 
old  yet  ever  necessary  policy  of  Shtadlamit  or  in- 
tercession with  government  officials.  As  has  been 
stated,  the  permission  to  establish  the  Odessa  Com- 
mittee, which  was  the  official  name  for  the  Zion- 
ist organization  in  Russia,  was  obtained  by  Ze- 
derbaum  only  after  many  years  of  personal  en- 
deavor. Dr.  Pinsker  himself  was  ever  in  fear 
that  the  government  would  assume  an  unfriendly 
attitude  and  nullify  all  the  work  of  himself  and 
his  colleagues,  and  his  anxiety  reacted  upon  his 
activity  which  necessarily  had  to  limit  itself  to  the 
very  narrowest  of  programs.  On  one  occasion, 
when  several  young  Zionist  students  were  arrested 
in  Odessa  as  political  suspects,  he  caused  Lilien- 
blum  to  burn  all  the  books  and  archives  of  the 
Zionist  organization  (1887)  and  even  asked  that 
he  be  allowed  to  retire  from  its  leadership.  Be- 
sides, there  was  too  much  dissension  among  the 
workers  as  to  plans  and  methods,  and  the  cutting 


396  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

criticism  of  Ahad  Haam  only  aggravated  an  al- 
ready bad  enough  situation.  For  many  years  the 
only  comfort  Zionists  could  derive  was  in  the 
moral  effect  of  their  ideal;  the  very  work  in  Pal- 
estine was  but  an  outlet  for  a  long  pent-up  hope, 
without  however  being  an  adequate  fulfillment  of 
the  expectations  that  had  been  raised.  To  bring 
the  movement  out  of  its  narrow  sphere  into  the 
arena  of  large  world-movements,  to  give  it  an  in- 
ternational character  by  calling  to  it  the  attention 
of  the  great  world  powers,  above  all,  to  make  it  a 
movement  shared  in  by  Jews  of  all  lands  instead  of 
but  a  minority  of  the  Jews  of  Eastern  Europe, 
required  a  statesmanlike  leadership  such  as  only 
Western  Jewry  could  supply,  and  such  leadership 
had  not  been  forthcoming.  The  bulk  of  the  Jews 
of  Germany,  France,  England  and  other  countries 
were  still  nursing  the  pleasant  dream  of  the  ul- 
timate removal  of  all  social  and  political  barriers, 
woefully  failing  to  benefit  by  the  lesson  of  Anti- 
semitism.  Even  where  these  Jews  assumed  a 
friendly  attitude  towards  the  Palestinian  work  and 
aided  it  with  their  money,  it  was  only  as  outsiders 
and  from  a  purely  philanthropic  motive.  Baron 
de  Hirsch  preferred  to  spend  his  millions  for  a 
Jewish  colonial  settlement  in  distant  Argentina, 
and  it  is  doubtful  whether  even  Baron  Rothschild, 
whose  munificent  generosity  was  the  greatest  fac- 
tor in  making  possible  the  progress  of  the  agri- 
cultural settlements  of  Palestine  was,  at  least  in 
the  opening  years  of  his  beneficent  activity,  more 
than  a  humanitarian  and  philanthropist  with  spe- 
cific Jewish  interests.  Zionism,  however,  is  any- 
thing but  a  charitable  undertaking,  and  it  is  clear 
that  no  nationalist  revival  can  be  permanent 
which  is  reared  upon  a  basis  of  charity  and  is 
thus  subject  to  the  good-will  of  a  few  well-dis- 
posed individuals.  Russian  Jewry  was  looking 


NATIONALIST    REVIVAL   AND    ZIONISM  397 

forward  to  the  day  when  the  nationalist  sentiment 
it  knew  to  be  latent  in*  the  hearts  of  Western  Jews 
would  break  through  the  hard  shell  of  social  am- 
bition and  political  self-deception  and  produce  the 
man  or  the  men  capable  of  making  the  Jewish 
cause  of  world-wide  concern  to  Jews  and  non- 
Jews  alike.  Such  a  man  finally  made  his  appear- 
ance at  the  very  time  when  the  "Hibbat  Ziyyon" 
cause  was  at  the  lowest  ebb  of  its  fortunes,  despite 
the  encouraging  reports  that  kept  coming  from 
Palestine.  This  man  was  Theodore  Herzl. 

When  we  say  that  Theodore  Herzl  was  a  West- 
ern leader  we  sum  up  in  one  word  the  chief  rea- 
sons for  his  phenomenal  success  as  the  organizer 
and  head  of  the  greatest  Jewish  movement  of  our 
day.  For,  notwithstanding  the  charm  and  mag- 
netism of  his  personality,  his  astute  statesman- 
ship and  his  inborn  and  acquired  qualifications  of 
leadership,  Herzl  could  never  have  acquired  the 
place  of  international  Jewish  leader  had  he  been 
a  Russian  or  Roumanian  Jew,  even  as  it  is  true 
that  the  prominent  Jews  of  Russia,  not  excepting 
those  of  them  who  had  been  educated  in  foreign 
universities  and  possessed  a  high  degree  of  West- 
ern culture,  like  Pinsker,  Mandelstamm,  Ussysch- 
kin,  Tschlenow  and  others,  could  not  attain  to  such 
leadership,  owing  to  their  surroundings,  the  po- 
litical disadvantages  of  their  race  and  the  conse- 
quent limitation  of  their  influence  abroad.  It  was 
necessary  that  the  leadership  come  from  the  Wrest, 
both  because  of  its  political  advantages  and  its  ef- 
fect upon  the  Western  Jews  themselves.  And  it 
was  most  fortunate  for  the  nationalist  cause 
that  when  the  leader  finally  appeared,  it  was  in 
the  person  of  Theodore  Herzl,  a  man  "from  his 
shoulder  and  upward"  towering  above  the  people 
both  by  his  intellectual  acumen,  his  political  sa- 
gacity, his  genius  as  an  organizer  and,  withal,  his 


39^  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

fervent  devotion  to  his  people.  Indeed,  but  for 
these  qualities  and  the  magic  influence  exhaled  by 
his  remarkable  personality,  even  his  work  might 
have  proved  abortive  from  the  beginning.  After 
Kalischer,  Hess,  Smolenskin  and  Pinsker,  the 
time  was  ripe  for  the  acclaim  of  the  truly  great 
leader,  and  Herzl's  unusual  advantage  lay  in  the 
fact  that  he  came  only  after  the  preparatory  work 
had  already  been  accomplished.  Herzl's  success 
was  not  due  to  his  originality,  for  in  his  ideas  on 
the  "Jewish  State"  as  embodied  in  his  German 
work  by  that  name  ("Der  Judenstaat"),  he  only 
repeats  facts  and  conclusions  enunciated  by  the 
above-mentioned  prophets  of  nationalism.  As  the 
historian  of  the  Zionist  movement,  Professor 
Gottheil,  justly  remarks,  the  Herzlian  doctrines 
"had  been  set  forth  quite  as  translucently  by 
Pinsker  in  his  Autoemancipation,  perhaps  even 
with  warmer  feeling,  and  certainly  with  a  more 
intimate  acquaintance  with  Jewish  history  and 
Jewish  life.  They  had  been  preached  with  the 
fervor  of  a  prophet  by  Ruelf ;  they  were  the  foun- 
dation stones  with  which  Lilienblum  and  Levanda 
had  worked.  Even  the  practical  measures 
enounced  by  Herzl,  by  means  of  which  the  Jewish 
State  was  to  be  built  up,  are  all  to  be  found  in 
Pinsker's  pamphlet.  The  results  are  all  the  more 
strange  when  we  consider  that  Pinsker  intended  to 
call  forth  a  practical  realization  of  his  theories, 
while  Herzl's  pages  were  conceived  and  written 
as  a  sort  of  self-communing,  not  even  destined 
for  a  large  circle  of  friends.  The  "Judenstaat" 
is  the  cool  reasoning  of  the  philosopher;  "Auto- 
emancipation,"  the  cry  of  the  hunted  stag  that  pants 
after  some  haven  of  refuge.  The  one  is  the  ex- 
pression of  noble  sentiments  touched  by  poetic 
fancy  and  of  a  keen  sense  of  injustice  done  to 
others;  the  second,  the  prescription  of  the  physi- 


THEODOR  HERZL 
(1860-1904) 


NATIONALIST    REVIVAL    AND    ZIONISM  399 

cian  who  has  studied  his  own  disease,  and  is  ready 
to  plunge  the  scalpel  into  his  own  flesh." 

Like  nearly  all  great  political  saviors  of  the 
Jewish  race,  beginning  with  Moses,  Herzl  came 
to  his  lofty  position  in  the  Jewish  world  from  the 
outside,  after  spending  nearly  all  his  life  in  non- 
Jewish,  maybe  even  anti-Jewish  circles.  A  na- 
tive of  Budapest,  a  lawyer  by  training,  a  journal- 
ist by  profession  and  occupation,  a  valuable  mem- 
ber of  the  editorial  staff  of  Vienna's  leading  pa- 
per, the  "Neue  Freie  Presse,"  there  was  little  like- 
lihood that  the  strikingly  handsome  young  man, 
with  the  manners  and  bearing  of  a  nobleman,  as 
eloquent  of  tongue  as  he  was  facile  of  pen,  ad- 
mired and  encouraged  in  the  best  non-Jewish  cir- 
cles, should  ever  have  occasion  to  come  close  to 
his  brethren  in  race.  Yet  it  was  the  very  occupation 
which  brought  him  social  and  professional  success 
that  also  furnished  the  opportunity  for  Herzl's 
revelation  to  his  people.  Commissioned  by  his 
paper  to  go  as  its  correspondent  to  Paris,  his  stay 
in  the  French  capital  synchronized  with  the  noto- 
rious and  sensational  Dreyfus  affair  in  1894.  The 
infamous  accusation  against  an  innocent  and  hon- 
orable man  solely  on  account  of  his  Jewish  origin 
was  to  Herzl's  noble  and  justice-loving  soul  a  rev- 
elation of  the  tragedy  of  a  whole  race — his  race. 
Whether  he  had  known  of  this  tragedy  before  but 
like  so  many  other  young  Jews  blinked  at  it,  it 
was  now,  in  the  midst  of  all  the  rottenness  of 
French  political  life  brought  out  by  the  Dreyfus 
trial,  that  he  began  to  feel  it.  He  set  himself  to 
thinking  on  the  anomalous  position  of  the  Jew  in 
all  lands,  his  helplessness  in  the  face  of  a  deep- 
seated  prejudice  and  hatred,  the  ease  and  im- 
punity with  which  nations  small  and  great  trample 
upon  his  human  rights  and  kick  him  about  in  foot- 
ball fashion,  and  the  result  was  the  "Judenstaat." 


4OO  HISTORY    OF    THE   JEWS 

Though  he  may  not  have  been  familiar  with  the 
theses  of  the  other  nationalist  leaders  on  the  same 
subject,  and  though  his  own  work  is  a  more  dis- 
passionate and  coldly  logical  dissertation,  it  is  at 
the  same  time  a  more  thorough-going  analysis  of 
the  Jewish  tragedy,  and  from  the  point  of  view 
of  practical  politics  a  more  statesmanlike  pro- 
nouncement than  the  similar  efforts  of  his  prede- 
cessors. Like  them,  too,  Herzl  goes  to  the  root 
of  the  evil.  Centuries  of  oppression  have  made 
the  Jew  the  outcast,  but  also  the  irreducible  and 
ineradicable  competitor  of  the  nations,  both  eco- 
nomically and  politically.  "We  are,"  he  says,  "what 
the  Ghetto  has  made  us.  We  have  doubtless  at- 
tained pre-eminence  in  finance,  because  mediaeval 
conditions  drove  us  to  it.  The  same  process  is 
now  being  repeated.  Modern  conditions  force  us 
again  into  finance,  now  the  stock-exchange,  by 
keeping  us  out  of  all  other  branches  of  industry. 
Being  on  the  stock-exchange,  we  are  therefore 
again  considered  contemptible.  At  the  same  time 
we  continue  to  produce  an  abundance  of  mediocre 
intellects  which  finds  no  outlet,  and  this  endangers 
our  social  position  as  much  as  does  our  increasing 
wealth.  Educated  Jews  without  wealth  are  now 
fast  becoming  Socialists.  Hence  we  are  certain 
to  suffer  very  severely  in  the  struggle  between 
classes,  because  we  stand  in  the  most  exposed  po- 
sition in  the  camps  of  both  Socialists  and  capital- 
ists." Nor  will  this  ever  change  so  long  as  the 
conditions  remain  unchanged.  The  Jewish  ques- 
tion, he  says  in  his  introduction  to  his  work,  "is 
a  remnant  of  the  Middle  Ages,  which  civilized 
nations  do  not  even  yet  seem  able  to  shake  off, 
try  as  they  will.  They  certainly  showed  a  gen- 
erous desire  to  do  so  when  they  emancipated  us. 
The  Jewish  question  exists  wherever  Jews  live 
in  perceptible  numbers.  Where  it  does  not  exist, 


MENAHEM  MENDEL   USSYSCHKIN 
(b.    1863) 


NATIONALIST    REVIVAL    AND    ZIONISM  4OI 

it  is  carried  by  the  Jews  in  the  course  of  their 
migrations.  We  naturally  move  to  those  places 
where  we  are  not  persecuted,  and  there  our  pres- 
ence produces  persecution.  This  is  the  case  in 
every  country,  and  will  remain  so,  even  in  those 
most  highly  civilized — France  itself  being  no  ex- 
ception— till  the  Jewish  question  finds  a  solution 
on  a  political  basis.  The  unfortunate  Jews  are 
now  carrying  Antisemitism  into  England;  they 
have  already  introduced  it  into  America." 

The  political  basis  alone  can  and  will  solve  the 
Jewish  problem.  You  cannot  solve  this  question 
by  artificial  means  such  as  agricultural  settlements 
in  the  lands  where  Jews  live — for  here  again  they 
come  in  competition  with  the  native  peasantry. 
The  very  districts  in  Germany  and  Russia  where 
the  Jews  have  taken  to  agriculture  have  become 
hotbeds  of  Antisemitism.  Will  "assimilation" 
solve  it?  But  complete  assimilation,  that  is  ab- 
sorption, can  only  come  through  intermarriage, 
and  here  social  prejudice  rises  as  an  insurmount- 
able barrier.  Rich  Jews  have  succeeded  in  break- 
ing through  this  barrier  by  means  of  their  wealth, 
but  the  vast  majority  of  the  Jews  belong  to  the 
bourgeois,  and  pitted  against  the  Christian  middle 
classes  they  will  always  remain  a  contemptible  and 
ostracized  minority.  But  the  most  formidable  fac- 
tor against  assimilation  is — the  Jewish  people  it- 
self. For  since  assimilation  implies  not  only  "ex- 
ternal conformity  in  dress,  habits,  customs  and  lan- 
guage" but  also  "identity  of  feeling  and  manner," 
the  Jew-consciousness  of  the  people  will  always 
act  as  a  hindrance.  It  is  but  the  few  who  assimi- 
late, howsoever  prominent  such  individuals  may  be, 
but  their  going  cannot  affect  the  people  as  a  whole. 
Such  assimilators  are  but  the  unfit  among  us  as 
Jews,  and  "whatever  is  unfit  to  survive  can,  will 
and  must  be  destroyed.  But  the  distinctive  na- 


4O2  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

tionality  of  Jews  neither  can,  will,  nor  must  be 
destroyed.  It  cannot  be  destroyed,  because  ex- 
ternal enemies  consolidate  it.  It  will  not  be  de- 
stroyed; this  it  has  shown  during  2,000  years  of 
appalling  suffering.  It  must  not  be  destroyed. 
.  .  .  Whole  branches  of  Judaism  may  wither  and 
fall,  but  the  trunk  remains." 

And  the  plan?  It  is  that  of  a  political  state  in 
either  Argentina  or  Palestine  formed  by  Jews,  by 
special  grant  of  the  rulers  of  the  land,  and  with  the 
sanction  and  under  the  protection  of  the  European 
powers.  The  execution  of  the  plan  shall  be  accom- 
plished through  the  medium  of  two  agencies:  the 
"Society  of  Jews"  and  the  "Jewish  Company."  The 
first  will  map  out  the  plan  upon  a  scientific  and  po- 
litical basis,  while  the  other,  by  means  of  a  large 
fund  of  a  quarter  of  a  billion  dollars,  will  bring  it 
into  realizaton.  It  will  control  the  orderly  and 
gradual  transfer  of  the  Jews  who  work  to  settle  in 
the  land  thus  acquired,  organize  commerce  and 
industry,  construct  roads,  bridges,  railways  and 
telegraphs,  regulate  rivers  and  build  houses.  The 
land  shall  first  be  settled  by  the  poorer  elements 
who  are  in  immediate  need  of  refuge  and  succor. 
"Their  labor  will  create  trade,  trade  will  create 
markets,  and  markets  will  attract  new  settlers; 
for  every  man  will  go  voluntarily,  at  his  own  ex- 
pense and  his  own  risk."  Then  will  come  emi- 
grants of  a  higher  economic  grade.  "The  labor 
expended  on  the  land  will  enhance  its  value,  and 
the  Jews  will  soon  perceive  that  a  new  and  per- 
manent sphere  of  operation  is  opening  here  for 
that  spirit  of  enterprise  which  has  heretofore  met 
only  with  hatred  and  obloquy." 

Though  Herzl  mentions  both  Argentina  and 
Palestine  as  territorial  possibilities  for  his  pro- 
posed State,  yet  it  is  clear  that,  even  at  the  ear- 
liest stage  of  his  plan,  it  is  the  latter  land  which 


NATIONALIST    REVIVAL    AND    ZIONISM  403 

would  receive  his  preference  were  he  allowed  to 
choose  between  the  two:  Argentina  is  favored 
solely  for  its  material  benefits  as  "one  of  the  most 
fertile  countries  in  the  world,  which  extends  over 
a  vast  area,  has  a  sparse  population  and  a  mild 
climate."  On  the  other  hand,  "Palestine  is  our 
ever-memorable  historic  home.  The  very  name 
of  Palestine  would  attract  our  people  with  a  force 
of  marvellous  potency.  Supposing  His  Majesty 
the  Sultan  were  to  give  us  Palestine,  we  could  in 
return  pledge  ourselves  to  regulate  the  whole 
finances  of  Turkey.  We  should  there  form  a  por- 
tion of  the  rampart  of  Europe  against  Asia,  an 
outpost  of  civilization  as  opposed  to  barbarism. 
The  sanctuaries  of  Christendom  would  be  safe- 
guarded by  assigning  to  them  an  extra-territorial 
status,  such  as  is  well-known  to  the  law  of  nations. 
We  should  form  a  guard  of  honor  about  these 
sanctuaries,  answering  for  the  fulfillment  of  this 
duty  with  our  existence.  This  guard  of  honor 
would  be  the  great  symbol  of  the  solution  of  the 
Jewish  question  after  eighteen  centuries  of  Jew- 
ish suffering." 

He  was  but  anticipating  here  the  difficulties 
and  objections  which  might  be  raised  on  the  part 
of  both  Turkey  and  the  Christian  powers.  Little 
did  Herzl  realize  that  the  greatest  obstacle  to  his 
plan  would  come  from  among  the  Jews  themselves 
and  not  exactly  from  the  mere  "assimilationists" 
whom  he  was  prepared  to  discount.  For  a  long 
time  the  remarkable  plan  he  outlined  with  such 
fine  detail  becomes  an  object  of  criticism,  censure 
and  even  derision  on  the  part  of  those  very  ele- 
ments which  should  have  been  first  to  rally  around 
his  banner.  Nevertheless,  the  very  discussion 
it  gave  rise  to  was  promise  of  an  awakening  in- 
terest. On  its  moral  side,  at  least,  the  project  was 
assured  of  success,  even  where  its  materialization 


404  HISTORY    OF    THE   JEWS 

remained  much  of  an  uncertainty.  To  the  West- 
ern Jews  the  "Judenstaat,"  if  it  was  read  by  them 
at  all,  was  unconvincing  for  the  simple  reason  that 
their  immediate  interests,  and  the  peculiar  Welt- 
anschaung  which  had  been  bred  into  them  from 
their  childhood  days,  militated  against  the  accept- 
ance of  its  premises  and  conclusions.  Eastern 
Jewry,  on  the  other  hand,  saw  in  the  work  a  con- 
firmation of  its  own  views,  acquired  by  it  through 
actual  contact  with  the  acutest  phases  of  Jew- 
hatred.  To  them  it  was  the  authoritative  enounce- 
ment  of  a  great  intellect,  which  while  corroborat- 
ing the  ideas  of  their  own  prominent  leaders, 
Smolenskin  in  the  seventies,  and  Pinsker  in  the 
eighties,  was  now,  in  the  nineties,  prepared  to  un- 
dertake the  task  of  Jewish  political  salvation  upon 
a  vast  scale  and  in  keeping  with  methods  in  vogue 
in  the  cultured  West.  The  long  looked- for  West- 
ern leader  now  at  last  arrived,  and  whatever  the 
expectations  of  the  mass  of  Russian  and  Rouman- 
ian Jews  about  the  personality  of  the  new  Moses, 
the  reality  by  far  exceeded  their  very  fondest 
hopes  and  wishes. 

For  Herzl  the  theorist  was  soon  to  surprise  the 
world  by  his  revelation  of  himself  as  the  man  of 
practical  deeds  who,  having  formulated  a  great 
plan,  was  now  ready  and  able  to  act  upon  it  and 
carry  it  to  its  most  logical  conclusion.  Conceived 
largely  as  a  mere  tentative  programme,  not  whol- 
ly without  a  Utopian  flavor,  though  written  by 
him  in  the  supreme  earnestness  of  a  soul  writhing 
in  the  accumulated  pain  and  anguish  of  the  cen- 
turies, the  Jewish  state  now  became  an  insep- 
arable part  of  himself.  Presenting  it  at  first  as  a 
timid  portrayal  to  his  own  soul  of  a  happier  state 
of  being  for  his  brethren,  and  branded  by  his 
closest  friends  as  the  work  of  an  unbalanced  in- 
tellect, the  project,  once  he  placed  it  before  the 


NATIONALIST    REVIVAL    AND    ZIONISM  405 

world,  grew  for  him  in  the  breadth  and  depth  of 
its  meaningfulness  and  the  grandeur  of  the  hopes 
it  touched  upon.  Published  in  1896  in  Vienna 
whither  Herzl  had  removed  but  a  short  time  pre- 
viously, the  "Judenstaat"  at  once  seized  upon  the 
latent  sympathies  of  the  large  Jewish  masses  of 
the  East  to  whom  the  report  of  its  contents  was 
immediately  conveyed  by  means  of  the  Hebrew  and 
Yiddish  newspapers  and  through  pamphlets,  even 
as  it  evoked  a  heated  discussion  among  the  Jewish 
litterateurs  of  the  large  Western  cities.  In  Vienna, 
his  home  city,  where  Smolenskin  and,  later,  Nathan 
Birnbaum,  Herzl's  university  friend,  had  for  many 
years  kept  fostering  the  national  ideal,  Herzl  was 
at  once  acclaimed  as  the  new  leader  of  the  racial- 
ly-conscious Jews,  the  local  Kadimah  society  offer- 
ing him  its  services  for  the  realization  of  his  plans 
in  an  address  sent  him  by  Drs.  Schnirer  and 
Kokesch  and  signed  by  several  thousand  names. 
So  wide-spread  was  the  discussion  aroused  by  the 
pamphlet  that  as  rumor,  based  upon  authoritative 
statements,  has  it,  the  Sultan  of  Turkey,  Abdul 
Hammid,  interested  himself  in  the  subject  and  in 
May  of  that  year  despatched  a  secret  messenger 
to  Herzl,  the  Chevalier  de  Newlinsky,  with  the 
offer  of  a  charter  for  Palestine  to  the  Jews  if  they 
would  use  the  powerful  influence  over  the  Euro- 
pean press  which  the  Sultan  believed  they  pos- 
sessed, to  stop  all  further  attacks  upon  him  because 
of  his  cruel  policy  towards  the  Armenians. 
Whether  true  or  not,  the  mere  circulation  of  the 
rumor  is  evidence  of  the  importance  the  idea  was 
assuming.  When,  in  July  of  that  year,  Herzl  ap- 
peared before  the  Maccabeans  of  London,  at  the 
instance  of  Israel  Zangwill,  there  stood  before  the 
vast  audience  no  longer  a  "solitary  writer,"  as  lie 
had  referred  to  himself  in  his  epoch-making  work, 


4O6  HISTORY    OF   THE    JEWS 

but  a  popular  hero  whose  influence  reached  out  to 
every  part  of  the  globe,  to  whose  leadership  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  human  beings  were  attach- 
ing the  deepest  faith.  The  great  Western  Jew 
did  indeed  fulfill  the  hopes  of  his  Eastern  breth- 
ren: He  succeeded  in  arousing  a  considerable 
portion  of  Western  Jewry  from  its  lethargy  and 
in  enlisting  many  of  their  prominent  men  in  the 
cause.  Passive  support  was  lent  to  his  plan  by 
such  men  as  Prof.  M.  Friedlander  of  London,  Dr. 
M.  Guedemann  of  Vienna,  and  Dr.  J.  H.  Duenner, 
of  Holland,  while  active  and  enthusiastic  co-opera- 
tion was  promised  by  men  like  Max  Nordau  and 
the  brothers  Marmorek  of  Paris,  Dr.  Boden- 
heimer  of  Cologne,  Dr.  Kaminka  of  Vienna,  be- 
sides a  number  of  the  more  celebrated  among  the 
"Hobebe  Ziyyon"  of  Russia  and  Roumania. 

Herzl  now  set  his  face  in  the  direction  of  organ- 
izing Jewish  public  opinion.  Publicity  on  a  wide 
scale  was  most  necessary,  and  though  supported  in 
many  places  by  the  existing  periodicals,  some  of 
which  had  been  faithful  and  ardent  spokesmen  of 
the  old  "Hibbat  Ziyyon"  movement,  there  was  yet 
an  urgent  need  for  a  special  organ  for  what  now  be- 
came known  as  Political  Zionism.  At  considerable 
expense  to  himself,  and  with  the  aid  of  a  number 
of  sympathizers  he,  in  1897,  founded  "Die  Welt" 
(The  World)  which  at  once  became  the  authori- 
tative mouthpiece  of  the  movement,  enlisting  the 
services  of  the  best  literary  talents  among  the 
Zionists,  Herzl  himself  at  first  acting  as  its  editor. 
A  Congress  of  representatives  of  all  Zionist  groups 
was  decided  on  as  the  first  actual  step  toward  the 
consummation  of  the  great  project.  In  the  open, 
frankly  and  fully  to  take  the  world  into  its  con- 
fidence by  reciting  its  many  grievances  and  lay- 
ing bare  its  true  nationalist  hopes  and  plans,  the 
Jewish  people  was  to  make  the  initial  move  of  self- 


MAX   XORDAU 
(b.    1849) 


NATIONALIST    REVIVAL    AND    ZIONISM  407 

help  and  "autoemancipation."  The  Congress  was 
to  take  place  in  the  city  of  Munich,  Bavaria,  dur- 
ing the  summer  of  1897.  By  this  time  the  oppo- 
sition aroused  to  the  plan  in  many  Jewish  quar- 
ters became  so  formidable  as  to  be  commensurate 
only  with  the  progress  it  had  made,  the  adherents 
it  had  won  and  the  enthusiasm  it  had  awakened. 
As  long  as  Zionism  was  only  a  theory,  its  oppo- 
nents could  well  content  themselves  with  an  atti- 
tude of  indifference  or,  at  best,  of  mild  reproach. 
The  prospect  of  its  crystallization  into  an  active 
and  world-wide  organization,  however,  served  to 
put  the  anti-Zionists  on  their  mettle.  Open  hos- 
tility both  before  and  after  the  Congress  came 
not  only  from  among  the  assimilationists  who  saw 
in  the  movement  a  most  dangerous  attempt  at  un- 
dermining a  position  they  had  held  for  many  a 
year,  but  from  the  more  loyal  Jewish  camps  as 
well,  from  the  ultra-orthodox  who  denounced  it 
as  a  revolt  against  the  Messianic  hopes  of  the  Jew, 
and  from  the  radical  Reform  wing  which  branded 
it  as  a  reactionary  movement  hurtful  not  only 
to  the  best  civic  interests  of  the  Jews  but  also  to 
their  religious  idealism  as  a  people  with  a  univer- 
salistic  mission.  Zionism  was  denounced  as  a 
movement  of  disloyalty  to  all  lands  in  which  Jews 
live,  Prof.  Ludwig  Geiger,  of  Berlin,  threatening 
the  adherents  of  the  movement  in  Germany  with 
the  loss  of  their  German  citizenship  should  they 
persist  in  their  course,  while  Dr.  Emil  G.  Hirsch 
of  Chicago  was  but  echoing  the  sentiments  of 
many  of  his  European  colleagues  when  he  de- 
nounced the  Zionists  as  being  on  a  level  with  the 
Antisemites,  and  accused  Herzl  and  Nordau  as 
seeking  to  enrich  themselves  at  the  expense  of 
their  credulous  and  misled  brethren.  At  the  Mon- 
treal meeting  of  the  Central  conference  of  Amer- 
ican Rabbis  which  met  in  1897,  Dr.  Isaac  M.  Wise, 


408  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

its  president,  attacked  the  movement  in  bitter 
terms,  adding  to  his  denunciations  in  subsequent 
articles  in  the  "American  Israelite"  and  the  "He- 
brew Union  College  Journal,"  where  he  called  Zion- 
ists "traitors,  hypocrites,  or  fantastic  fools."  More 
drastic  action  was  resorted  to  in  various  places 
in  Europe,  when  hostility  to  the  upholders  of  the 
cause  was  preached  from  many  a  pulpit,  and 
Zionist  publications  were  placed  under  the  ban. 
In  his  own  analytical  and  philosophical  manner, 
Ahad  Haam,  in  his  monthly  "Haschiloah,"  summed 
up  the  first  Congress  as  an  attempt  to  mislead  the 
masses  with  false  and  unrealizable  hopes.  "The 
salvation  of  Israel,"  said  he,  "will  come  not  from 
diplomats,  but  from  prophets."  The  German  op- 
ponents of  Zionism,  however,  were  determined 
that  the  Congress  shall  not  take  place  at  all,  fear- 
ful as  they  were  that  any  public  avowal  by  Jews 
of  their  nationalist  hopes  would  only  react  unfa- 
vorably upon  the  position  of  the  Jews  in  all  lands. 
The  Association  of  Jewish  Rabbis  of  Germany, 
headed  by  Drs.  S.  Maybaum  of  Berlin  and  H. 
Yogelstein  of  Stettin,  published  a  vigorous  pro- 
test, calling  the  promoters  of  the  movement  "fa- 
natics from  Russia  and  hot-headed  young  stu- 
dents." When  this  protest  failed  to  bring  the  de- 
sired results,  the  officials  of  the  Jewish  commu- 
nity of  Munich  were  stirred  to  action,  and  so  great 
was  their  remonstrance  against  the  holding  of  the 
Congress  in  their  city  that  Herzl  and  his  advisers 
deemed  it  best  not  to  come  to  a  place  where  they 
were  not  wanted,  and  the  meeting  place  was  ac- 
cordingly changed  for  the  city  of  Bazel,  in  Switz- 
erland. 

It  met  in  August,  1897,  and  from  a  moral 
standpoint  was  a  most  signal  victory  for  the  na- 
tionalist ideal.  For  the  first  time  in  nineteen  hun- 
dred years  Jews  from  all  parts  of  the  world  came 


NATIONALIST  REVIVAL  AND  ZIONISM  409 

together   as   representatives   of   a  Jewish   nation, 
for  the  first  time  since  the  downfall   of  Judaea 
Jews  loudly  proclaimed  their   right  to   live   their 
own  life  in  the  historic  land  of  their  fathers.    For 
the  nonce  factionalism  was  forgotten,  and  the  fact 
that  the  gathering  comprised  men  of  all  shades  of 
religious    belief    and    political    opinion,    orthodox, 
Reformers,    atheists,    Socialists — was    proof    con- 
clusive that  Zionism  had  indeed  touched  the  heart 
of  the  entire  Jewish  people,  and  that  the  204  dele- 
gates in  the  Basel-  Casino  in  themselves  consti- 
tuted the  Jewish  nation  in  miniature.     The  Con- 
gress adopted  wThat  has  since  become  known  as 
the  Basel  Program,  which  in  its  very  first  para- 
graph makes  plain  the  aim  and  purpose  of  Zion- 
ism when  it  declares  that  "the  object  of  Zionism 
is  to  establish  for  the  Jewish  people  a  publicly  and 
legally  assured  home  in  Palestine."     It  mattered 
little  that  the  great  Jewish  philanthropic  bodies 
like   the  Alliance   Israelite,   the  Jewish   Coloniza- 
tion   Association    and    the   Vienna    Allianz,    kept 
aloof  from  it,  that  if  some  prominent  Jews  were 
on  principle  opposed  to  the  cause  a  great  many 
more  were  indifferent  to  it  or  mayhap  were  even 
unaware   of   its    existence.      In    the   principles    it 
enunciated,  the  hopes  it  aroused,  and  the  sympa- 
thetic response  it  now  received  Zionism,  alone  of 
all  Jewish   movements  in  the  last  nineteen  hun- 
dred years,  gave  the  one  satisfactory  answer  to 
Jewish  yearning  and  aspiration:     The  Jews  are, 
and  never  will  cease  being,   a  nation;  their  na- 
tional goal  can  be  reached  only  in  the  one  land 
they  can  historically  call  their  own;  and  the  na- 
tions of  the  world,  both  as  a  matter  of  right  to  the 
Jews  and  of  benefit  to  themselves,  must  aid  in  the' 
work  of  Jewish  rehabilitation  in  Palestine. 

Steps  were  now  taken  to  call  into  life  the  agen- 
cies Herzl  had  suggested  in  his  "Judenstaat."  The 


4IO  HISTORY    OF   THE    JEWS 

"Society  of  Jews"  became  the  Zionist  organiza- 
tion as  a  whole  with  the  Congress  as  its  gov- 
erning body,  while  the  "Jewish  Company"  as- 
sumed the  form  of  the  "Jewish  Colonial  Trust" 
which  was  established  in  London  with  a  capitali- 
zation of  ten  million  pounds  subscribed  to  by  Jews 
from  all  over  the  world,  this  being  supplemented 
by  the  Jewish  National  Fund  established  for  the 
exclusive  object  of  redeeming  the  soil  of  Pales- 
tine and  turning  it  over  to  Jews.  The  direction 
of  Zionist  affairs  was  placed  in  the  hands  of  an 
Actions  Committee.  London,  Berlin  and  Con- 
stantinople were  the  three  capitals  in  which  Zion- 
ist effort  was  mainly  concentrated.  The  securing 
of  the  "Charter"  from  the  Sultan,  wTith  the  sanction 
of  the  European  government,  became  the  chief 
task  of  the  heads  of  the  movement.  Already  in 
1896,  about  a  month  after  the  rumored  visit  of 
Chevalier  de  Newdinsky  to  Vienna,  Herzl  jour- 
neyed to  Constantinople,  for  what  purpose  and 
with  what  results  for  the  time  being,  it  being  un- 
known. After  the  first  Congress,  and  through 
nearly  all  subsequent  years  until  Herzl's  death, 
the  leader  of  the  movement  worked  with  this  goal 
ever  in  mind.  Sultan  Abdul  Hammid  was  then 
still  the  autocrat  of  Turkey,  and  the  granting  of 
a  charter  for  the  proposed  wrork  in  Palestine  \vas 
still  wholly  within  his  power.  Even  Abdul  Ham- 
mid,  however,  it  was  known,  was  anxious  for  the 
good  will  of  Christian  Europe,  and  it  was  cer- 
tain that  he  would  do  nothing  for  the  Jews  ex- 
cept with  the  connivance  and  sanction  of  Europe's 
two  foremost  powers,  England,  the  traditional 
friend  of  Turkey,  and  Germany  whose  ruler,  for 
political  reasons  of  his  own,  had  repeatedly  shown 
his  friendliness  for  Turkey  and  his  concern  in 
its  welfare.  It  therefore  became  necessary  to 
have  both  in  London  and  in  Berlin  representative 


NATIONALIST    REVIVAL    AND    ZIONISM  4!  I 

Zionists  whose  function  was  to  influence  public 
opinion  in  favor  of  the  Zionist  ideal,  and,  wherever 
possible,  to  come  in  direct  touch  with  the  govern- 
ment. In  1898,  on  the  occasion  of  Emperor  Wil- 
liam's visit  to  Jerusalem,  Dr.  Herzl  with  other 
prominent  Zionists  went  to  Palestine  and,  in  No- 
vember of  that  year,  was  received  by  the  Kaiser 
outside  the  gates  of  the  Holy  City.  He  was  re- 
ceived in  audience  by  the  Sultan  in  1901  and  twice 
again  in  1902.  His  visit  to  Von  Plehve,  the  Rus- 
sian Minister  of  the  Interior,  in  1903,  and  to  the 
Pope  and  King  Victor  Immanuel  in  1904,  was  ap- 
parently for  the  same  purpose  of  predisposing 
the  rulers  of  Europe  in  favor  of  his  project.  So, 
too,  though  in  an  indirect  way,  was  his  appear- 
ance in  August,  1902,  before  the  British  Royal 
Commission  on  Alien  Immigration,  when  he  gave 
his  famous  definition  of  the  term  "nation,"  in 
answer  to  the  question  put  to  him  by  Major  Evans 
Gordon:  "I  will  give  you  my  definition  of  a  na- 
tion, and  you  can  add  the  adjective  'Jewish/  A 
nation  is,  in  my  mind,  a  historical  group  of  men 
of  a  recognizable  cohesion  held  together  by  a  com- 
mon enemy.  That  is  in  my  view  a  nation.  Then 
if  you  add  to  that  the  word  'Jewish'  you  have 
what  I  understand  to  be  the  Jewish  nation." 
Herzl's  plan  which  was  endorsed  by  the  entire 
Zionist  organization,  was  to  give  the  widest  pos- 
sible circulation  to  the  Zionist  hope  and  to  make 
it  the  intimate  concern  of  every  great  European 
power.  In  no  other  way,  he  knew,  could  the  pro- 
gram of  oeffentlich-rechtlich,  a  publicly -leg  ally  as- 
sured home  in  Palestine,  become  a  reality. 

He  was  destined  to  die  without  seeing  the  real- 
ization of  his  hopes.  With  the  exception  of  Eng- 
land, nearly  always  kindly  disposed  to  the  Jews 
and  evidently  sincere  in  its  desire  to  help  them, 
none  of  the  Great  Powers  took  the  Zionist  project 


412  HISTORY    OF    THE   JEWS 

seriously.  France,  Germany  and  Russia  had  each 
a  selfish  policy  of  its  own  regarding  Palestine. 
Each  of  them  had  plans  laid  for  the  establishment 
of  a  claim  to  the  political  domination  of  the  land 
when  the  hour  of  Turkey's  dismemberment — which 
to  them  seemed  imminent — had  at  last  struck: 
France,  by  obtaining  valuable  concessions  for  the 
building  of  railroads,  and  establishing  schools 
through  which  the  French  language  and  culture 
were  disseminated  in  the  land,  using  for  this  pur- 
pose even  the  schools  established  by  the  Jewish 
"Alliance;"  Germany,  by  an  extensive  colonization 
project  which  resulted  in  the  settling  in  Palestine 
of  tens  of  thousands  of  Germans;  and  Russia  by 
the  establishment  of  many  monastaries  and 
churches  of  the  Greek  Catholic  faith  which  at- 
tracted every  year  vast  hosts  of  pious  pilgrims. 
It  was  quite  natural  for  each  of  these  nations  to 
look  askance  at  the  Jewish  colonization  scheme 
and  more  particularly  at  the  political  phase  of 
Zionism.  The  extensive  propaganda  carried  on 
by  men  like  Nordau,  York-Steiner  and  Bernard 
Lazare,  the  friendly  support  of  the  movement  by 
eminent  Christians  like  the  Austrian  Baron  Man- 
teuffel,  Baroness  von  Suttner  and  Professor  Mas- 
aryk,  the  Norwegian  Bjornstjerne  Bjornson,  the 
English  Rider  Haggard  and  Hall  Caine,  the  Amer- 
ican Thomas  Davidson  and  the  Russian  Maxim 
Gorky,  failed  in  its  desired  effect  upon  the  gov- 
ernments, while  for  the  Jews  this  postponement 
of  the  fulfillment  of  a  hope  upon  which  the  hearts 
of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  men  had  been  set 
brought  inevitable  discouragement.  Every  one 
of  the  congresses  that  were  held  after  the  one  of 
1897  served  to  emphasize  the  fact  that  the  Zion- 
ist goal  was  far  from  immediate  attainment  and, 
indeed,  might  be  reached  only  after  the  most  stren- 
uous efforts  and  heroic  sacrifices  of  many  dec- 


NATIONALIST    REVIVAL    AND    ZIONISM  4X3 

ades,  if  not  generations.  A  large  portion  of  the 
blame  for  the  failure  of  the  negotiations  for  a 
charter  attached  to  the  Jews  themselves,  the  ma- 
jority of  whom  still  failed  to  appreciate  the  im-  , 
portance  of  such  negotiations,  and  withheld  from 
their  great  leader  the  funds  of  which  he  was  so 
greatly  in  need.  To-day  it  is  clear  that  during 
the  early  years  of  political  Zionism,  when  Abdul 
Hammid  was  still  firmly  entrenched  in  his  auto- 
cratic power,  money  might  have  obtained  from 
him  the  charter  he  was  unwilling  to  grant  through 
moral  suasion  or  political  pressure*  if  any  such 
pressure  could  at  all  be  brought  to  bear  upon 
him.  After  his  audience  with  the  Sultan  in  1901, 
on  which  occasion  that  ruler  decorated  him  with 
the  Order  of  Mejidie,  Herzl  was  quite  confident 
of  the  favorable  outcome  of  his  efforts.  On  his 
return  from  Constantinople  he  spoke  optimistically 
before  a  large  gathering  of  the  Maccabeans,  in 
London,  stating  that  the  charter  might  be  secured 
if  a  sum  like  one  and  one-half  million  pounds 
sterling  could  be  raised  in  addition  to  the  funds 
of  the  Jewish  Colonial  Trust.  His  plea  was 
in  vain.  The  wealthy  Jews  kept  aloof  and  even 
frowned  upon  the  entire  scheme,  while  the  poorer 
Jews  though  willing  were  unable  to  raise  the  re- 
quired amount. 

All  these  years  Herzl  remained  faithful  to  the 
Palestinian  plank  of  the  Zionist  program,  not- 
withstanding the  fact  that  the  original  thesis  of 
his  "Judenstaat"  provided  for  a  choice  of  either  the 
ancient  Jewish  homeland  or  Argentina,  it  all  de- 
pending upon  which  of  the  two  territories  proved 
more  available  and  easier  of  acquisition.  Coming 
into  Jewish  life  from  the  outside,  and  judging 
the  Jewish  situation  at  first  from  the  angle  of  an 
outside  observer,  it  was  natural  that  he  should  at 
first  formulate  his  plans  upon  the  basis  of  prac- 


414  HISTORY    OF   THE   JEWS 

ticality  alone.     The  hold  of   Palestine  upon  him 
grew  stronger  with  the  passing  of  the  years  and 
with  his  ever  deepening  realization  of  the  larger 
and  more  spiritual  meaning  which  that  land  held 
for  the  Jew.     Contact  with  the  leaders  and  the 
masses  of  Eastern  Jewry  furnished  him  with  the 
needed   orientation,    the    overwhelming   sentiment 
in  favor  of  the  Holy  Land  as  the  only  territory 
acceptable  to  the  Jew  reacted  upon  himself,  and 
Herzl  may  be  said  to  have  found  himself  again 
as   a   Palestinian   Zionist.     The   sentimentalist   in 
him   told  him   that,   in  the   case   of  the   Jews   at 
least,  national  happiness  and  stability  was  indis- 
solubly  bound  up  with  the  one  historic  spot  which 
the  Jew  has  never  ceased  calling  his  own.  Herzl, 
however,  was  a  statesman  even  more  than  a  sen- 
timentalist,   and    statesmanship   often   finds   itself 
at    cross-purposes    with    mere    sentiment.      After 
several  years  of  increasing  effort  to  obtain  the 
guarantees  of  a  publicly-le  gaily  assured  home  in 
Palestine,  there  finally  came  a  time  when  Herzl 
and  his  close  advisers  were  forced  to  admit  that, 
from   the  political   standpoint,   their  work   was  a 
failure.    It  was  felt  that  the  tricky  Abdul  Hammid 
was  only  playing  a  game  of  his  own   in   which 
he  used  the  Zionist  movement  as  a  mere  pawn. 
No  reliance  could  be  placed  upon  the  ambiguous 
half-promises  of  that  despot,  and  all  Zionist  plans 
in  Palestine  had  to  be  put  in  abeyance  until  the 
arrival  of  a  happier  day.     The  restrictions  upon 
Jewish    immigration    into    Palestine,    which    were 
renewed  in  1900,  showed  the  utter  precariousness 
of  all  Jewish  undertakings  in  that  land  under  the 
existing  conditions.     At  the  same  time,  with  the 
situation   of   the   Jews   grown    steadily   worse   in 
Russia  and  Roumania,  instant  relief  was  impera- 
tive,  while   in   Western   Jewry,    too,    the   pent-up 
nationalistic    hope    demanded    an    outlet    through 


NATIONALIST  REVIVAL  AND  ZIONISM  415 

some  practical  undertaking.  A  change  of  pro- 
gram, if  only  temporarily,  was  deemed  neces- 
sary. Palestine  must  never  be  abandoned  as  the 
final  goal  of  the  Jews,  but  how  about  the  present 
moment?  The  wonderful  thousand-year-old  pa- 
tience exhibited  by  the  Jew  in  awaiting  the  day 
of  divine  redemption  was  fast  breaking  down  with 
the  weakening  of  the  religious  hold  and  under  the 
stress  of  changed  social  conditions.  Herzl  felt 
that  the  Jewish  people  could  not  go  through  an- 
other century  as  the  social  and  political  outcast  of 
the  nations  and  still  retain  its  religious  identity  and 
racial  homogeneity.  If  not  Palestine,  will  not 
another  territory  answer  the  purpose  of  Jewish 
nationhood,  if  only  as  a  Nachtasyl  (Night  Asy- 
lum) pending  the  dawn  of  the  happy  day  in  the 
Jews'  own  land?  It  was  a  counsel  born  of  de- 
spair, but  then  Herzl  was  only  falling  back  upon 
his  own  initial  program  of  the  "Judenstaat,"  even 
as  he  was  reverting  to  the  mode  of  reasoning  em- 
ployed by  Mordecai  Manuel  Noah  and  Dr.  Leo 
Pinsker. 

But  here,  as  was  inevitable,  Herzl  clashed  with 
the  Zionists  of  Eastern  Europe,  to  whom  Jewish 
nationalism  was  wholly  interwoven  with  Palestin- 
ianism,  and  who  later  assumed  the  proud  designa- 
tion of  Ziyyone  Ziyyon  (i.  e.  simon-pure  Zion- 
ists, with  emphasis  upon  Zion}  in  contradistinc- 
tion to  the  pure  nationalists  who  wanted  Jewish 
national  integrity  rescued  in  any  territory  at  all 
that  would  lend  itself  to  the  materialization  of 
Jewish  hopes.  These  Zionists  were  headed  by 
Menahem  Mendel  Ussyschkin  of  Yekaterinoslav, 
probably  the  most  powerful  personality  produced 
by  Russian  Israel,  a  man  whom  the  broad  Western 
culture  he  had  acquired  did  not  hinder  from  ac- 
cepting the  Zionist  program  upon  its  exclu- 
sively traditional  basis.  Unlike  Herzl,  Ussyschkin 


HISTORY    OF   THE   JEWS 

and  his  followers  believed  that  the  substitution  of 
any  other  territory  for  Palestine,  even  if  only  as 
a  temporary  makeshift,  was  treason  to  the  national 
ideal  and  not  to  be  tolerated  by  the  faithful.  Rather 
a  slow  and  meagerly  fruitful  colonization  in  Pales- 
tine, thereby  enabling-  a  considerable  number  of 
Jews  to  gradually  settle  on  the  soil  in  prepara- 
tion for  the  day  of  political  rehabilitation,  than  a 
ready-made  politico-national  home  in  any  other 
part  of  the  globe.  It  is  needless  to  state  that  this 
attitude  of  the  majority  of  Russian  Zionists  was 
a  more  logical  interpretation  of  the  Zionist  ideal 
which  had  its  origin  in  the  three-thousand-year 
old  attachment  of  the  Jew  for  that  ancient  land. 
Herzl's  statesmanship,  however,  was  seeking  a 
more  practical  and  more  immediate  solution.  In 
the  Zionist  administration  circles  the  counsels  of 
the  Territorialist  nationalists  were  sure  to  prevail. 
As  early  as  1899  the  suggestion  of  a  Jewish  colo- 
nization enterprise  on  the  island  of  Cyprus  had  been 
made  by  Davis  Trietsch,  only  to  be  met  with  the 
disapproval  of  the  delegates  to  the  third  Congress 
which  met  shortly  thereafter.  In  1901  the  Ger- 
man Zionists,  with  the  approval  of  Herzl,  con- 
ceived the  plan  of  a  settlement  in  El-Arish,  in  the 
Sinai  Peninsula,  situated  between  Egypt  and  Pal- 
estine. The  English  Zionists  fell  in  with  the  idea, 
and  with  the  sanction  of  the  Anglo-Egyptian  gov- 
ernment, which  declared  its  readiness  to  grant  the 
Jewish  colony,  should  one  be  formed  there,  the 
right  of  self-administration,  a  commission  of  prom- 
inent Jews  from  Germany,  England  and  Pales- 
tine, went  there  in  1903  to  explore  the  region.  The 
British  government  evinced  its  interest  in  the 
plan  by  sending  its  own  representatives  along  with 
the  party.  No  satisfactory  results  came  from  this, 
evidently  on  account  of  the  unfavorable  physical 
conditions  of  the  land.  The  Territorialists  now 


NATIONALIST    REVIVAL    AND    ZIONISM 


turned  their  eyes  towards  East-Africa  where  the 
English  government,  through  Joseph  Chamberlain, 
had    made    a    spontaneous    offer    to    the    Zionists 
(August,    1903)    for   the   establishment   there    of 
"a  Jewish  colony  or  settlement  on  conditions  which 
will    enable    the    members    to    observe    their    na- 
tional   customs  ......  the    details    of    the    scheme 

comprising  as  its  main  features  the  grant  of  a 
considerable  area  of  land,  the  appointment  of  a 
Jewish  official  as  the  chief  of  the  local  adminis- 
tration, and  permission  to  the  colony  to  have  a 
free  hand  in  regard  to  municipal  legislation  as  to 
the  management  of  religious  and  purely  domestic 
matters,  such  local  autonomy  being  conditional 
upon  the  right  of  His  Majesty's  government  to 
exercise  general  control."  The  proposal  met  with 
approval  from  the  Western  Zionists,  but  with  un- 
qualified opposition  from  the  majority  of  the  Rus- 
sians, among  whom  feeling  ran  high  against  the 
policy  of  the  Zionist  administration  which  neg- 
lected the  cultural  work  of  the  movement  and  was 
lukewarm  towards  the  colonization  work  in  Pal- 
estine. In  September  of  1902  these  Zionists  held 
a  congress  of  their  own  in  Minsk  at  which  500 
delegates  were  present  and  which  adopted  resolu- 
tions calling  for  the  use  of  National  Fund  moneys 
for  the  exclusive  purpose  of  Palestinian  coloniza- 
tion. No  sooner  did  the  East-African  offer  of  the 
British  government  become  known,  than  an  agita- 
tion was  set  on  foot  for  its  rejection.  When  the 
question  came  up  before  the  Sixth  Congress  which 
met  in  1903  in  Bazel,  the  storm  broke  loose.  In 
vain  was  Herzl's  plea  that  "East  Africa  is  indeed 
not  Zion  and  can  never  become  it/'  nor  Max  Nor- 
dau's  in  his  defense  of  the  plan  as  that  of  a  mere 
Nachtasyl  The  Russian  Zionists  would  not  coun- 
tenance the  scheme,  and  when  after  a  heated  dis- 
cussion, lasting  several  days,  and  largely  out  of 


4l8  HISTORY    OF    THE   JEWS 

sheer  deference  to  the  friendly  disposition  of  Eng- 
land, a  majority  of  the  delegates  voted  in  favor  of 
sending  a  commission  to  Uganda,  the  proposed 
East  African  territory,  many  of  the  Russian  dele- 
gation, among  them  their  representatives  on  the 
Actions  Committee,  withdrew  from  the  Congress 
amid  bitter  tears  at  what  they  considered  the  bank- 
ruptcy of  their  ideal.  The  incident  furnished 
Ahad  Haam  with  the  pretext  for  writing  one  of 
his  most  brilliant,  and  at  the  same  time  one  of 
his  bitterest,  attacks  on  Political  Zionism,  under 
the  heading  "The  Weepers."  After  demonstrating 
that  those  who  opposed  the  Uganda  scheme  were 
themselves  at  fault  for  placing  too  great  faith 
in  the  loyalty  of  the  Western  leaders  to  Pales- 
tine, he  says:  "We  are  asked:  'What  is  now  to 
become  of  Zionism?'  Which  Zionism?  If  by  this 
is  meant  Bazelian  Zionism — that  no  longer  ex- 
ists. That  Zionism  was  born  in  Bazel  in  August, 
1897,  and  died  in  Bazel  in  August,  1903,  nothing 
more  remaining  of  it  than  'a  name  devoid  of  its 
content,'  and  a  program  with  a  new  sermonic 
commentary.  Is  it,  then,  historic  Zionism?  For 
that  have  no  fear.  That  can  wait.  Some  time 
will  elapse  and  then  the'  African  dream,  like  all 
political  dreams  that  have  preceded  it,  will  become 
but  a  matter  of  the  past,  only  that  it  will  add  one 
more  drop  into  the  sea  of  travail  and  anguish 
known  as  Jewish  history.  Then  new  men  will 
arise  who  will  once  again  raise  the  eternal  Zionist 
banner  and  will  carry  it  aloft  with  all  their 
strength,  with  all  the  warmth  of  their  hearts,  even 
as  you  (the  weepers)  have  at  one  time  done.  And 
should  then  arise  a  new  statesman  with  the  offer 
to  lead  them  to  Zion  through  a  political  short-cut, 
they  will  open  for  him  the  book  of  history  and 
point  to  the  chapter  on  Political  Zionism  including 
the  Uganda  affair.  'Read  it,  wise  one,'  they  will 


NATIONALIST    REVIVAL    AND    ZIONISM  419 

tell  him,  'and  use  your  wisdom  for  the  restoration 
of  the  negroes  to  Africa,  even  as  was  the  dream 
indulged  in  by  your  predecessor  when  he  decided 
to  bring  us  there.  As  for  ourselves  we  shall  go 
slowly  through  the  long  way,  and  shall  not  again 
rush  the  end/ ' 

The  Uganda  proposition  brought  Zionism  to  a 
crisis.  It  drove  a  wedge  between  Eastern  and 
Western  Zionists  and  for  a  time  threatened  to 
subvert  the  movement  as  a  whole.  In  Paris  a  Rus- 
sian Jewish  student  by  the  name  of  Luban  was 
driven  mad  by  the  agitation  and  made  an  attempt 
on  the  life  of  Nordau.  Ussyschkin  rallied  around 
him  the  forces  of  the  faithful  and  convened  in 
Palestine  in  the  Zikron  Ya'akob  colony,  an  oppo- 
sition congress  at  about  the  time  the  Sixth  Con- 
gress was  in  session.  It  however  never  met  again. 
By  far  more  drastic  was  the  action  taken  by  the 
Russian  delegates  who  had  bolted  the  Sixth  Con- 
gress. Several  months  after  their  return  home 
they  assembled  in  secret  conference  in  Kharkov, 
deciding  to  send  a  delegation  to  Herzl  with  a  de- 
mand for  a  written  promise  that  he  would  abandon 
the  Uganda  or  any  other  territorial  project  until 
the  convening  of  the  Seventh  Congress,  also  that 
he  would  use  the  moneys  of  the  National  Fund  for 
purchasing  and  cultivating  land  in  Palestine  and 
Syria.  They  threatened,  in  case  of  a  refusal,  to 
withhold  from  the  administration  all  Russian  con- 
tributions. Those  chosen  to  convey  this  message 
of  rebellion  were  A.  A.  Belkowsky,  S.  J.  Rosen- 
.baum  and  W.  J.  Temkin  who  went  to  Vienna  and 
presented  their  ultimatum  at  a  session  of  the 
Larger  Actions  Committee  (April  n,  1904).  That 
body,  however,  could  not  legitimately  enter  into  ne- 
gotiations with  a  rebellious  faction,  the  action 
on  the  East  African  plan  having  been  decided 
by  the  Congress  in  due  parliamentary  order.  The 


42O  HISTORY    OF    THE   JEWS 

demands  of  the  Russian  Zionists  could  not  there- 
fore be  granted,  and  no  action  was  taken.  The 
Zionist  administration,  however,  and  Herzl  him- 
self for  a  long  time  remained  storm  centres,  the 
objects  of  bitter  attack  on  the  part  of  critics  great 
and  small.  Slandered  by  his  foes,  and  misunder- 
stood by  his  friends,  even  Herzl,  accustomed  to 
criticism  and  hardened  to  attack,  found  the  bur- 
den too  heavy  for  his  shoulders.  Less  than  three 
months  after  the  Russian  ultimatum  he  passed  out 
of  life,  dying  more  of  a  broken  heart  than  of  the 
physical  malady  which  overtook  him  (July  3,  1904). 
Herzl's  death,  while  causing  many  of  the  rash 
spirited  Zionists  to  repent  of  their  unwarranted 
criticism,  did  not  end  the  opposition  to  the  Ugan- 
da project.  The  agitation  continued  all  the  while 
and  when  the  Seventh  Congress  convened  on  July 
30,  1905,  a  majority  of  delegates  was  found  to  be 
opposed  to  the  plan  which  was  then  declared  as 
not  in  conformity  with  the  Bazel  programme. 
And  now  came  the  turn  of  the  friends  of  the 
project  to  bolt  the  Congress  and  form  an  organ- 
ization of  their  own.  The  Jewish  Territorial  Or- 
ganization, known  as  the  I.  T.  O.,  was  formed  soon 
thereafter,  and  was  joined  by  the  Socialistic  wing 
of  the  Zionists  known  as  the  Poale  Ziyyon.  At 
its  head  was  placed  Israel  Zangwill,  the  brilliant 
writer,  while  among  the  prominent  men  who  joined 
him  was  Prof.  Mandelstamm  of  Kiev.  The  plat- 
form adopted  by  the  new  organization  was,  among 
other  things,  "to  procure  a  territory  upon  an 
autonomous  basis  for  the  Jews  who  cannot  or 
who  will  not  remain  in  the  lands  in  which  they 
already  live."  The  movement  was  doomed  to 
failure  from  its  birth,  not  because  of  Zangwill's 
proven  incapacity  for  leadership  of  a  great  po- 
litical or  economic  movement,  but  because  the 
movement  was  lacking  in  the  zest  which  idealism 


ISRAEL  ZANGWILL 
(b.   1864) 


NATIONALIST    REVIVAL    AND    ZIONISM  421 

alone  can  beget.  From  a  historic  yearning  with 
its  roots  deeply  set  in  the  racial  consciousness  of 
the  Jew,  such  as  Zionism  is,  Territorialism  became 
a  coward's  refuge  for  all  who  found  themselves 
drained  of  the  historic  patience  of  their  people, 
and  ready  to  compromise  with  their  conscience  for 
the  material  husks  of  a  temporary  shelter,  itself 
uncertain  and  improbable.  Had  Itoism  been  but 
another  form  of  relief  measure,  like  the  Argen- 
tinian colonization  plan,  one  could  find  little  to 
criticize  in  it;  indeed,  in  that  case  its  sponsors 
would  only  be  deserving  of  the  lasting  gratitude 
of  the  Jewish  people  for  attempting  to  alleviate  and 
diminish  its  distress,  be  the  scale  of  its  operations 
large  or  small.  The  Ito  movement,  however,  at- 
tempted more  than  that:  It  aspired  to  take  the 
place  of  the  historic  Zionist  hope  in  the  hearts  of 
the  people.  It  vitiated  the  national  cause  of  the  Jew 
by  reducing  it  to  a  movement  of  sheer  materialism. 
And  because  it  lacked  a  soul  it  was,  like  all  life- 
less tasks,  foredoomed  to  failure.  Itoism  repre- 
sents the  Peter  Schlemihl  of  the  Zionist  movement, 
the  man  without  a  shadow  who  yet  wears  the  sev- 
en-league boots  for  a  rapid  move  in  whichever  di- 
rection he  may  hope  to  find  gratification  for  his 
heart's  desire.  It  set  out  to  find  a  territory  for 
the  Jews  and  in  rapid  succession  it  considered 
countries  like  Cyrenaica,  Canada,  parts  of  Aus- 
tralia, Mesopotamia  and  Angola.  Finding  no 
land  suitable  or  available  for  its  purpose,  it  finally 
settled  down  to  regulating  immigration  to  the 
United  States  by  directing  Jewish  emigrants  to  go 
to  America  by  way  of  Galveston,  in  Texas,  rather 
than*  through  the  large  Eastern  ports,  thereby  hop- 
ing to  reduce  the  frightful  over-crowding  of  the 
large  Jewish  quarters  of  New  York,  Philadelphia, 
Baltimore  and  other  cities.  Yet  even  in  this  well- 
intentioned  plan  it  was  but  moderately  success- 


422  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

ful,  the  great  Jewish  centres  of  the  east  proving 
too  great  an  attraction  for  many  of  the  Galveston 
arrivals  to  make  them  contented  with  the  quiet 
and  uneventful  life  of  the  South.  The  death  of 
Dr.  Mandelstamm,  in  1912,  removed  one  of  the 
chief  pillars  of  the  movement,  and  precipitated  its 
downward  course,  while  the  outbreak  of  the  Great 
War  dealt  it  the  death  blow  from  which  it  has 
never  rallied,  even  the  Galveston  immigration  bu- 
reau being  finally  compelled  to  close  its  doors. 
There  is  no  likelihood  that  Itoism  will  ever  again 
be  revived  when  the  War  is  ended,  it  being  highly 
significant  •  for  the  complete  failure  of  the  move- 
ment that  Zangwill  himself  should  of  late  have 
begun  to  look  more  sympathetically  towards  his 
first  love — Zionism. 

Unlike  Territorialism  the  Zionist  ideal  was  not 
to  be  affected  by  the  external  pressure  of  world 
affairs.  Impeded  in  its  work,  it  could  not  be  ar- 
rested in  its  growth.  The  death  of  Herzl  was  a 
serious  loss  to  the  cause,  but  it  did  not  check  its 
development  and,  in  a  sense,  even  added  to  its 
strength  by  causing  Zionists  everywhere  to  dedi- 
cate themselves  anew  and  with  greater  zeal  to  the 
realization  of  the  plans  of  the  great  leader.  No 
man  could  be  found  capable  of  taking  Herzl's 
place,  even  Max  Nordau  refusing  the  proffered 
leadership,  while  David  Wolffsohn  consented  to 
take  his  place  at  the  helm  only  after  much  im- 
portunity and  assurance  of  support  from  other 
prominent  chieftains.  The  years  following  Herzl's 
death  are  years  of  consolidation  of  forces  and  of 
intensive  propaganda.  The  political  goal  is  not 
lost  sight  of,  but  its  immediate  realizability  is 
discounted,  and  the  historic  patience  of  the  Jew 
is  once  more  called  into  service.  On  the  other 
hand  attention  is  given  to  Palestinian  problems, 
and  a  helping  hand  is  lent  to  a  number  of  enter- 


PROF.  MAX  MANDELSTAMM 
(1838-1912) 


NATIONALIST    REVIVAL    AND    ZIONISM  423 

prises  through  a  special  Palestine  Commission 
created  for  that  purpose.  The  cultural  work,  neg- 
lect of  which  in  the  first  years  of  Herzl's  leader- 
ship had  evoked  such  bitter  criticism  on  the  part 
of  the  Eastern  Zionists,  now  receives  greater  at- 
tention than  ever,  thus  showing  the  effect  of  Ahad 
Haam-'s  wholesome  preachment.  A  splendid  edu- 
cational system  is  rapidly  developed  having  its 
origin  in  the  Gymnasium  and  the  Girls'  School  at 
Jaffa  in  which,  as  in  the  other  schools  throughout 
the  colonies  -and  cities,  all  subjects  are  taught  in  the 
Hebrew  language.  Indeed,  the  most  remarkable 
development  of  Jewish  life  in  Palestine  in  the 
last  twenty-five  years  is  the  resurrection  of  He- 
brew as  a  spoken  language,  used  by  mothers  when 
lulling  their  babies  to  sleep,  by  children  when  at 
play,  and  by  adults  in  their  everyday  tasks.  A 
vigorous  periodical  press  is  called  into  being,  sup- 
plementing the  work  of  such  journalistic  pioneers 
as  M.  Frumkin,  founder  of  "Ha-Habazelet"  (The 
Lily)  and  A.  Ben  Yehuda,  editor  of  "Ha-Zebi" 
(The  Glory)  later  called  "Ha-Or"  (The  Light). 
The  Mizrahists,  as  the  ultra-orthodox  faction  of 
Zionists  is  called,  are  close  followers  in  the  foot- 
steps of  their  more  progressive  brethren  in  edu- 
cational work,  having  founded  in  Jaffa  and  Je- 
rusalem schools  of  their  own  under  the  name  of 
Tahkemoni.  Jerusalem  is  still  the  largest  Jewish 
settlement  in  Palestine,  with  a  population  of  more 
than  sixty  thousand  Jews;  its  cultural  growth  is, 
however,  impeded  by  the  religious  fanaticism  of 
many  of  its  denizens.  On  the  other  hand  Jaffa 
becomes  the  seat  pf  liberal  ideas  and  methods,  in 
religion  as  in  education,  and  to  it  flock  many  of 
the  intellectual  forces  of  the  new  Yishub,  through 
whose  efforts  a  new  suburb  is  added  to  the  city, 
under  the  name  of  Tel  Aviv,  noted  all  over  the 
land  for  its  beautiful  residences  and  wide  thor- 


424  HISTORY    OF    THE   JEWS 

oughfares.  It  is  evident  that  Israel's  national  life 
needs  but  the  healthful  influences  of  the  Pales- 
tinian atmosphere  to  strike  deep  root  even  with- 
out official  guarantees  and  special  charters  from 
the  government  in  control  of  the  land. 

There,  indeed,  came  a  time  in  the  history  of 
Zionism  when  the  idea  of  a  charter  was  altogether 
abandoned,  not  because  the  leaders  of  the  move- 
ment had  despaired  of  securing  it,  but  rather 
because  of  its  needlessness.  Momentous  political 
changes  had  taken  place  in  the  Turkish  Empire 
beginning  with  the  Constitution  of  1908  extorted 
by  the  Young  Turk  party  from  the  unwilling 
hands  of  Abdul  Hammid,  and  followed  the  next 
year  by  the  dethronement  of  that  despot  and  his 
imprisonment  at  Saloniki.  A  Committee  of  Union 
and  Progress  was  formed  which,  as  the  name  in- 
dicated, looked  to  the  strengthening  of  the  land 
through  the  unification  of  all  elements  upon  the 
basis  of  liberty  and  progress.  This  Committee,  it 
is  true,  made  it  its  chief  aim  to  solidify  all  the 
component  nationalities  of  the  empire  into  a  com- 
mon Ottomanism,  in  this  sense  working  to  the 
detriment  of  Zionist  hopes  in  Palestine.  On  the 
other  hand  the  Zionists  had  long  been  convinced 
that  nothing  helpful  could  be  expected  from  the 
wily  and  treacherous  Abdul  Hammid,  and  the  ad- 
vantage lost  in  the  opportunity  of  dealing  with  an 
autocrat  who  might,  if  inclined,  grant  the  coveted 
charter,  was  more  than  offset  by  the  greater  ad- 
vantage now  opened  to  them  in  the  freedom  to 
carry  on  their  cultural  and  colonizing  work  in  the 
land  as  provided  under  the  Constitution.  Under 
the  autocracy  the  autonomy  longed  for  by  the 
Zionists  might  well  have  been  insisted  upon  as  a 
condition  indispensable  for  the  safety  of  the  pro- 
posed work;  under  a  constitutional  regime  such 
an  autonomy,  while  desirable,  was  not  essential 


NATIONALIST    REVIVAL    AND    ZIONISM  425 

to  the  interests  of  the  movement  as  a  whole.  Given 
a  majority  of  Jewish  inhabitants  in  Palestine  and 
local  autonomy  would  come  of  itself.  Complete 
political  independence,  though  cherished  as  a  pos- 
sibility for  the  "latter  days,"  was  something-  not 
contemplated  by  any  save  the  ill-informed  and 
those  Zionists  whose  enthusiasm  outran  their  po- 
litical discretion.  Time  and  again  Herzl,  Nordau 
and  Wolfsohn  were  emphatic  in  their  declaration 
that  the  Zionist  program  was  not  antagonistic 
to  the  imperialistic  interests  of  Turkey.  The  het- 
erogeneous aspect  of  the  empire  made  a  policy  of 
centralization  in  government  impossible,  requiring 
each  of  the  provinces  to  be  ruled  according  to  its 
special  needs  and  the  conditions  peculiar  to  it.  Such 
a  situation  greatly  favored  the  Zionist  plans.  And, 
in  truth,  never  did  the  Jewish  community  of  Pal- 
estine enjoy  greater  freedom  and  more  prosperity 
than  during  the  six  years  of  constitutional  .govern- 
ment in  Turkey,  from  1908  down  to  the  beginning 
of  the  Great  War  in  1914. 

An  instance  of  the  rapid  rise  of  the  Jewish  na- 
tional spirit  under  the  new  freedom  was  given  in 
the  language  controversy  of  1913  which  centred 
about  the  Polytechnicum  in  Haifa.  Nominally  the 
work  x  of  the  Hilfsverein  of  Berlin  under  whose 
auspices  it  was  being  built,  this  institution  was 
in  reality  made  possible  largely  through  the  mone- 
tary gifts  of  non-German  Jews  and  especially 
through  the  generosity  of  American  donors.  As 
Hebrew  was  increasingly  becoming  the  dominant 
language  of  Jewish  educational  institutions  in 
Palestine,  it  had  been  taken  for  granted  that  such 
would  be  the  case  also  with  the  Polytechnicum.  The 
leaders  of  the  Hilfsverein  in  Berlin,  however, 
looked  askance  at  this  prospect.  If  they  did  not 
love  the  Hebrew  less  they  favored  their  own  Ger- 
man language  more,  and  their  Teutomaniac  procliv- 


HISTORY    OF    THE   JEWS 

ities  made  it  possible  for  them  to  lend  themselves 
as  tools  in  the  hands  of  their  government  for  the 
spread  of  German  influence  in  the  land  by 
means  of  the  German  language.  Germany  had 
long  deplored  the  prevalence  of  the  French  cul- 
tural spirit  in  Palestine  and  was  altogether  too 
glad  to  avail  herself  of  the  ultra-patriotism  of  her 
Jewish  citizens  to  combat  the  influence  of  her  ri- 
val. Thus  it  came  about  that  at  one  of  the  ses- 
sions of  the  Kuratorium,  or  Board  of  Directors, 
3  of  the  Polytechnicum  in  Berlin  during  the  sum- 
mer of  1913,  despite  the  vigorous  opposition  of 
several  of  its  members,  the  language  question  was 
decided  in  favor  of  the  German.  This  led  to  the 
resignation  of  the  Zionist  members  of  the  Kura- 
torium, and  created  a  considerable  controversy  in 
the  Jewish  press  of  all  lands,  the  American  mem- 
bers of  the  Directorate,  including  Professor  Solo- 
mon Schechter,  and  Jacob  H.  Schiff  opposing  the 
action  of  their  Berlin  colleagues.  The  greatest  ex- 
citement, however,  took  place  in  Palestine  where 
the  populace  as  a  whole  rose  in  protest  against  the 
action  of  the  Hilfsverein  leaders,  and  where  the 
teachers  in  all  of  the  schools  maintained  by  that 
organization  went  on  strike  and  organized  new 
schools,  the  little  pupils  joining  in  the  demonstra- 
tion and  refusing  to  attend  the  old  schools.  The 
pleading  of  the  head  of  the  Hilfsverein,  Dr.  Paul 
Nathan,  of  Berlin  and  the  threats  of  his  hench- 
man, Mr.  Ephraim  Cohn,  in  Jerusalem,  who  even 
went  to  the  length  of  using  the  Turkish  police 
force  against  teachers  and  pupils  alike,  were  un- 
availing. The  Jews  of  Palestine  fought  for  the 
maintenance  of  their  national  tongue  with  a  zeal 
equaled  only  by  that  of  their  Maccabean  an- 
cestors. On  their  side  were  ranged  the  choicest 
elements  of  European  and  American  Israel  who 
held  indignation  meetings,  passed  resolutions  of 


NATIONALIST    REVIVAL    AND    ZIONISM  427 

condemnation  against  the  German-Jewish  assimila- 
tionists,  and  raised  large  funds  for  the  support 
of  the  striking  teachers  and  their  newly-opened 
schools.  It  was  a  trial  of  strength  for  the  suprem- 
acy not  merely  of  the  Hebrew  language  but  of  the 
Jewish  national  ideal  of  which  that  language  was 
the  symbol,  with  the  inevitably  resultant  triumph  of 
both. 

Thus  in  a  very  large  measure  did  the  age-long 
dream  of  a  Jewish  national  resurrection  come  true 
in  Palestine  even  without  the  longed-for  autonomy 
and  political  guarantees  from  the  Turkish  and  the 
other  governments.  It  is  a  repetition  of  the  legend 
of  Antaeus  come  true  in  the  life  of  a  whole  peo- 
ple. The  Jew  has  touched  the  soil  forever  in- 
alienably his,  and  contact  with  it  caused  him  to 
grow  strong  and  to  rise  once  again  in  racial  self- 
dignity  and  in  the  respectful  estimation  of  his 
Christian  and  Mohammedan  neighbors.  In  less 
than  four  decades  he  has  proved  himself  master 
of  his  own  destinies  and  a  source  of  economic  and 
cultural  strength  to  the  land  he  came  to  redeem 
from  her  centuried  waste  and  to  upbuild  by  his 
energy  and  thrift.  The  drawing  power  of  the 
country  for  Jews  from  all  lands  can  be  seen  in 
their  great  variety  of  color,  language,  custom  and 
dress,  including  as  they  do  not  only  Jews  from 
all  over  Europe  and  America,  but  from  the  Levant, 
Mesopotamia,  Persia,  Kurdistan,  Morocco,  a  col- 
ony of  wealthy  Jews  from  Bokhara,  and  a  sturdy 
peasantry  class  from  Yemen,  in  Southern  Arabia. 
Alongside  of  the  agricultural  activity  of  the  col- 
onies there  has  developed  a  considerable  retail  and 
wholesale  trade.  The  Anglo-Palestine  Company, 
a  branch  of  the  Jewish  Colonial  Trust,  has  been 
the  pioneer  banking  institution  of  the  country,  in- 
troducing a  credit  system,  financing  many  an  in- 
dustrial enterprise,  and  extending  its  business  op- 


428  HISTORY    OF   THE    JEWS 

erations  not  only  to  the  Jews  but  to  the  Christian 
and  Moslem  populations  as  well.  The  Bezalel 
School  of  Arts  and  Crafts,  under  the  remarkable 
leadership  of  Professor  Boris  Schatz,  has  given 
birth  to  a  new  Jewish  art,  the  excellent  products 
of  which  have  many  times  been  exhibited  in  the 
great  cities  of  Europe  and  the  United  States  where 
they  found  a  large  sale.  The  development  of  a 
large  clothing  industry  in  Jerusalem  was  under 
contemplation  by  a  few  wealthy  American  Jews 
when  the  Great  War  arrived  to  frustrate  their 
plans. 

With  the  entrance  of  Turkey  into  the  war  on 
the  side  of  the  Central  Powers  Palestine  was  at 
once  made  to  feel  the  entire  misery  which  the 
world-conflict  was  to  bring  to  nations  far  and  near. 
The  land  was  immediately  cut  off  from  the  great 
world  markets  and  economic  distress  began  to  pre- 
vail in  a  country  not  plentifully  supplied  with  gold 
and  largely  dependent  upon  foreign  lands  for  many 
of  the  necessaries  of  life.  The  Turkish  govern- 
ment whose  Jewish  policy  in  time  of  peace  had 
nearly  always  been  liberal  and  conciliatory,  now 
seized  hold  of  the  land  with  all  the  desperate  tyr- 
anny of  a  despot  who  sees  his  power  slipping  from 
his  grasp.  Aside  from  conscripting  many  of  the 
Jewish  young  men  into  the  army,  it  commandeered 
and  confiscated  for  its  war-purposes  everything  it 
could  lay  its  hands  on,  expelled  a  great  many  of 
the  non-Ottomanized  Jews  from  the  land  and 
caused  nearly  the  entire  Jewish  population  of 
Jaffa  to  evacuate  the  city.  Djemal  Pas^a,  to  whom 
the  task  was  entrusted  of  placing  the  corntry  on 
a  war- footing,  carried  out  his  mission  with  a  rigor 
fully  in  keeping  with  the  inhuman  methods  and 
tactics  of  the  German  war  lords  into  whose  hands 
Turkey  had  been  handed  over.  Thousands  of 
Jews  were  forcibly  placed  on  American  boats  and 


NATIONALIST    REVIVAL    AND    ZIONISM  429 

sent  to  Alexandria,  in  Egypt,  there  to  fall  a  bur- 
den upon  the  local  community  until  help  could 
arrive  from  the  United  States  to  enable  them  to 
start  on  a  circuitous  journey  to  America.  In  the 
melee  of  this  forcible  deportation  parents  became 
separated  from  their  children,  husbands  from  their 
wives,  and  not  a  few  were  killed  in  the  scrim- 
mage. Zionist  activity  was  declared  illegal  and 
seditious,  some  of  its  leaders  were  imprisoned, 
while  many  others,  including  the  heads  of  the  ed- 
ucational institutions  of  Jaffa  and  Jerusalem,  fled 
the  country  and  made  their  way  to  Allied  coun- 
tries and  to  America. 

But  now  a  great  event  happened,  great  notwith- 
standing that  it  was  limited  in  scope  and  in  the 
measure  of  its  actual  performance.  On  its  moral 
side  it  served,  as  nothing  else  could,  to  bring  the 
Zionist  hope  and  the  Jew's  historic  claim  to  the 
land  of  his  fathers  in  the  clear  and  commanding 
view  of  the  world  and  especially  of  the  Allied  bel- 
ligerents arrayed  against  Turkey  and  her  Ger- 
manic allies.  Among  the  Palestinian  refugees  in 
Alexandria  there  were  several  hundred  young 
men  upon  whom  the  idea  dawned  that  a  rare  op- 
portunity was  there  presenting  itself  to  the  Jews 
as  a  nation  to  join  in  the  great  world  struggle  for 
democracy  and  freedom  and  thereby  establish  their 
claim  to  Palestine  on  the  strength  of  their  actual 
participancy  in  the  war.  England  was  then  pre- 
paring what  proved  to  be  the  ill-fated  Gallipoli 
expedition  for  the  purpose  of  wresting  the  Dar- 
danelles and  Constantinople  itself  from  the  Turk, 
and  Egypt  was  the  great  base  for  British  military 
operations.  Under  the  direction  of  Vladimir  J. 
Zhabotinsky,  the  noted  Russian  Jewish  journalist 
and  radical  Zionist  leader,  who  was  in  Egypt  with 
the  refugees  and  to  whom  belongs  most  of  the 
credit  for  the  enterprise,  the  Zionist  youths  made 


43°  HISTORY    OF   THE   JEWS 

their  will  known  to  General  Sir  John  Maxwell, 
the  British  Commander-in-Chief,  and  asked  to  be 
organized  into  a  Zionist  regiment,  under  British 
command,  in  the  campaign  against  Turkey.  In 
helping  in  the  defeat  of  Turkey,  they  believed,  and 
in  the  consequent  liberation  of  Palestine,  their 
services  would  be  laid  to  the  credit  of  the  Jewish 
people  as  a  whole  whose  claim  to  the  Holy  Land 
would  thus  be  incalculably  strengthened.  The  of- 
fer was  accepted  and  as  commander  of  this  unit 
was  appointed  Lieutenant-Colonel  J.  H.  Patterson, 
a  man  of  much  military  experience  despite  his 
comparative  youth,  and  of  warm  sympathy  for  the 
Jewish  race.  There  were  about  500  men  in  this 
unit,  which  became  known  as  the  "Zion  Mule 
Corps."  Early  in  the  Spring  of  1915  these  men 
were  administered  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the 
Allied  cause  by  the  Grand  Rabbi  of  Alexandria, 
Professor  Raphael  della  Pergola,  and  on  the  2nd 
of  April  they  were  already  in  camp  undergoing 
training.  They  adopted  the  Mag  en  David  as  their 
insignium  and  the  drilling  was  done  under  words 
of  command  in  Hebrew.  The  Corps,  however, 
while  exposed  to  all  the  dangers  of  the  battle 
front,  was  not  intended  or  expected  to  do  much 
actual  fighting,  its  special  duty  being  to  supply 
water  and  other  necessaries  to  the  troops  in  the 
trenches.  They  made  their  way  to  the  foot  of 
Achi  Baba  hill,  in  the  southern  part  of  the  Gal- 
lipoli  peninsula,  where  for  several  months  they 
faithfully  carried  out  the  duties  assigned  to  them 
during  the  fiercest  battles  of  the  period,  many  of 
their  number  being  killed  and  wounded.  Their 
valor  is  attested  to  by  Colonel  Patterson  himself  in 
his  book  "With  the  Zionists  in  Gallipoli"  (1916) 
where  he  speaks  most  enthusiastically  of  the  men 
and  their  officers,  Captain  Trumpledor,  Corporal 
Yahuda,  Corporal  Grushkovsky  who  was  awarded 


VLADIMIR  J.  ZHABOTINSKY 


NATIONALIST    REVIVAL   AND    ZIONISM  431 

a  D.  C.  M.  (Distinguished  Conduct  Medal)  for 
bravery,  as  well  as  Private  Nissel  Rosenberg  who 
in  addition  to  the  medal  was  promoted  to  the  rank 
of  sergeant.  He  refers  touchingly  to  his  orderly, 
Corporal  Yorish,  to  Lieutenant  Gorodisky,  who 
died  in  the  service,  and  to  the  devotion  of  the 
members  of  the  Corps  to  each  other,  as  shown  at 
the  funeral  of  those  of  their  number  who  were 
killed  in  action,  and  on  the  occasion  of  any  of 
them  being  wounded  when  "his  friends  would  lit- 
erally fall  on  his  neck,  weep  and  embrace  him 
most  tenderly."  But  late  in  the  fall  of  that  year, 
the  Gallipoli  venture  was  pronounced  a  failure  and 
Britain  and  France  decided  to  withdraw  their 
forces.  The  Zion  Mule  Corps  returned  to  Egypt 
where  it  was  disbanded,  amid  the  praise  and  grat- 
itude of  the  British  government.  Those  500  Jews 
were  the  first  of  their  race,  since  the  days  of  Bar 
Kokhba,  in  the  second  century,  to- take  up  arms 
against  the  usurpers  of  their  ancestral  soil. 

Was  it  instinct  rather  than  political  foresight 
which  caused  these  Jewish  youths  to  throw  in 
their  lot  with  the  great  British  Empire  in  her  strug- 
gle against  Turkey?  Most  likely  it  was  both. 
The  governing  circles  of  England,  and  most  of 
the  English  nation,  have  always  shown  them- 
selves as  sincere  friends  of  the  Jewish  race.  The 
political  emancipation  of  the  Jews  in  the  Island 
Kingdom  has  been  carried  out  in  the  letter  as 
in  the  spirit,  and  Jews  were  allowed  to  occupy  the 
highest  political  offices,  from  Lord  Mayor  in  Lon- 
don and  other  cities  to  Lord  Chief  Justice  of  the 
Empire.  The  appointment  by  England  of  Lord 
Reading  (Sir  Rufus  Isaacs)  as  "High  Commis- 
sioner and  Special  Ambassador"  to  the  United 
States  is  the  first  instance  of  the  appointment  of 
a  Jew  for  such  an  exalted  mission  to  a  Christian 
power  by  another  such  power  (January  7,  1918), 


432  HISTORY   OF   THE   JEWS 

English  admiration  and  reverence  for  the  Old 
Testament,  had  made  possible  a  kinship  of  spirit 
and  sympathy  between  the  two  races  unequaled 
in  any  other  Christian  land.  Leading  Jews,  in- 
cluding Herzl  and  other  prominent  Zionists,  have 
felt  all  along  that  they  could  trust  English  prom- 
ises where  they  could  place  but  little  faith  in 
those  made  by  other  governments,  and  the  loca- 
tion of  the  Jewish  Colonial  Trust,  the  strong  pil- 
lar of  the  Zionist  cause,  in  London  was  done  out 
of  consideration  for  this  essential  fact.  But  as 
long  as  England  remained  the  reputed  friend  of 
Turkey  little  could  be  expected  from  her  as  an  aid 
toward  the  effectual  realization  of  the  Zionist 
hope  in  Palestine.  The  Great  War  changed  the 
entire  political  aspect  and  brought  within  the  ken 
of  possibility  what  had  been  apparently  impos- 
sible. England  not  only  declared  war  on  Turkey 
but  actually  entered  upon  the  task  of  wresting  by 
force  of  arms  the  Holy  Land  from  the  Turk's 
grasp.  Her  armies  invaded  Palestine  and  after  a 
brilliant  campaign  successively  took  the  historic 
cities  of  Beer  Sheba,  Gaza,  Askalon,  Jaffa  and 
other  places,  capturing  many  thousands  of  enemy 
troops  and  supplies  and  heading  for  Jerusalem 
where  the  Turks  made  feeble  resistance  against 
the  conquering  Britishers.  In  Zionist  circles  it 
had  been  taken  for  granted  that  a  British  Pales- 
tine would  mean  eventually  a  Jewish  Palestine. 
Whatever  misgivings  there  were  still  entertained 
on  the  subject  were  finally  dispelled  by  the  Brit- 
ish government  itself  in  its  now  historic  declara- 
tion of  November  2,  1917.  It  was  made  in  a  letter 
addressed  by  the  Hon.  Arthur  J.  Balfour,  British 
Secretary  of  State  for  Foreign  Affairs,  to  Lord 
Rothschild,  and  its  exact  statement  read:  "His 
Majesty's  Government  mews  with  favor  the  es- 
tablishment in  Palestine  of  a  national  home  for 


COL.  J.  H.  PATTERSON 
Commander  of  the  "Zion  Mule  Corps" 


NATIONALIST    REVIVAL   AND    ZIONISM  433 

the  Jewish  people,  and  will  use  its  best  endeavors 
to  facilitate  the  achievement  of  this  object,  it  be- 
ing clearly  understood  that  nothing  shall  be  done 
which  may  prejudice  the  civil  and  religious  rights 
of  existing  non-Jewish  communities  in  Palestine, 
or  the  rights  and  political  status  enjoyed  by  Jews 
in  any  other  country." 

Except  for  the  initiated  few,  this  report  of  Eng- 
land's professed  attitude  toward  the  Zionist  am- 
bition in  Palestine  was  so  sudden  and  unexpected 
as  to  sound  almost  incredible.  Yet  here  it  in  all 
truth  was,  this  authenticated  and  corroborated 
statement  on  behalf  of  the  powerful  English  gov- 
ernment. Herzl's  memorable  words  in  "Altneu- 
land,"  "if  you  wish  it,  it  is  no  myth,"  have  now  in- 
deed come  true.  The  foremost  of  all  the  belliger- 
ent Allies,  the  one  formidable  power  against 
whom  Germany's  military  weight  is  especially  di- 
rected, has  recognized  the  will  of  the  Jewish  peo- 
ple to  restoration  into  the  community  of  nation- 
hood, and  has  acted  accordingly  both  from  a  sense 
of  historic  justice  and  from  the  pardonably  selfish 
desire  of  seeing  the  one  land  of  strategical  im- 
portance for  the  protection  of  the  Suez  Canal  and 
of  the  road  to  India,  in  the  hands  of  a  people  she 
knows  she  can  trust  the  most,  the  Jews.  As  it 
subsequently  developed,  this  English  declaration 
was  no  spontaneous  matter  but  was  decided  on  by 
the  British  government  only  after  considerable  ac- 
tivity on  the  part  of  the  English  Zionists  who  since 
the  beginning  of  the  War  found  themselves  in  an 
advantageous  position  owing  to  the  accretion  to 
their  ranks  of  a  number  of  leading  Zionists  from 
Russia,  notably  Nahum  Sokolow,  the  brilliant 
Hebrew  editor  and  publicist,  and  Dr.  Tschlenow 
of  Moscow.  Anterior  to  the  war  England  had 
already  become  the  home  of  Ahad  Haam  and  of 
Dr.  Chaim  (Hayim)  Weizmann.  It  is  the  latter 


434  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

to  whom  is  ascribed  most  of  the  credit  for  the 
Zionist  diplomatic  victory.  Unlike  most  of  the 
other  great  leaders  of  Zionism  who  came  to  it  as 
novices  from  the  outside,  Weizmann  is  himself  a 
product  of  the  movement.  A  Talmudist  and  He- 
braist from  Russia,  he  early  in  life  went  to  Swit- 
zerland in  whose  universities  he  studied  chemistry 
and  after  a  time  received  an  appointment  as  profes- 
sor in  that  branch  of  science  at  the  Manchester  uni- 
versity. He  first  won  fame  in  the  Zionist  move- 
ment by  his  persistent  advocacy  of  the  project  to 
found  a  Jewish  university  in  Jerusalem.  With  the 
coming1  of  the  war  Weizmann  met  with  the  op- 
portunity of  his  life  to  render  his  favorite  move- 
ment the  greatest  possible  service.  By  dint  of  his 
invention  of  certain  chemical  explosives  he  had 
made  himself  invaluable  to  the  British  Government 
in  its  prosecution  of  the  war.  He  is  said  to  have 
refused  all  remuneration  for  his  work  but  re- 
quested, instead,  the  good- will  of  England  to- 
wards the  Zionist  cause.  England  thus  became 
more  than  ever  predisposed  in  favor  of  the  Jewish 
home-land  idea.  In  the  meantime  the  other  lead- 
ers of  the  movement  left  no  stone  unturned  in 
their  labors  at  furthering  the  materialization  of 
their  plans.  Even  Ahad  Haam,  perceiving  the  ad- 
vent of  the  crucial  and  psychological  moment, 
for  the  nonce  laid  aside  his  objections  to  the  po- 
litical scheme  and  exerted  his  moral  influence 
among  the  English  Zionists  in  favor  of  the  ne- 
gotiations with  the  British  government,  while 
Nahum  Sokolow  undertook  a  journey  to  France 
and  Italy  there  to  intercede  with  leading  states- 
men in  behalf  of  a  Jewish  Palestine.  In  London 
a  Zionist  Political  Committee  was  formed,  com- 
posed of  Dr.  Weizmann,  Nahum  Sokolow,  Lord 
Rothschild,  Joseph  Cowen,  Dr.  Moses  Caster  and 
Leon  Simon  aided  by  Dr.  Tschlenow  for  the  Rus- 


DB.  CHAYM  (HAYIM)  WEIZMANN 
(b.  1874) 


NATIONALIST    REVIVAL    AND    ZIONISM  435 

sian  Zionists  and  by  the  heads  of  the  Provisional 
Zionist  Committee  of  the  United  States,  Supreme 
Court  Justice  Louis  D.  Brandies,  Dr.  Stephen  S. 
Wise,  Dr.  Harry  Friedenwald,  E.  W.  Lewin- 
Epstein  and  Jacob  De  Haas.  When  Mr.  Balfour 
visited  Canada  in  the  Spring  of  1917,  he  sent  for 
Mr.  Clarence  I.  de  Sola,  the  president  of  the 
Canadian  Zionist  Federation  who  on  the  2Qth  of 
May  waited  on  him,  at  Ottawa,  at  the  palace  of 
the  Duke  of  Devonshire,  Governor-General  of 
Canada.  The  two  went  into  a  lengthy  and  thor- 
ough discussion  of  the  Zionist  programme  and  of 
the  future  of  the  Jews  in  Palestine,  and  the  Brit- 
ish Secretary  for  Foreign  Affairs  even  then  au- 
thorized Mr.  De  Sola  to  state  for  him  that  he 
was  in  entire  sympathy  with  the  Zionist  move- 
ment. The  British  government's  declaration  of 
November  was  an  aftermath  of  that  historic  in- 
terview, and  had  been  looked  forward  to  by  the 
Zionist  leaders  of  both  England  and  America. 

There  now  followed  a  number  of  momentous 
events  in  rapid  succession.  The  assimilationist 
faction  of  both  English  and  American  Jewry  found 
itself  with  its  back  against  the  wall  facing  a  most 
unusual  and  never  dreamed-of  situation.  They 
who  had  been  clamoring  all  along  that  they  alone 
were  the  loyalists  of  their  country  among  the  Jews,  • 
that  to  be  a  Zionist  was  nothing  less  than  to  harbor 
a  divided  allegiance  whereby  the  good  name  of  the 
Jew  was  being  compromised,  now  that  the  British 
government  itself  recognized  the  validity  of  Zion- 
ism and  that  President  Wilson  himself  is  known 
to  be  kindly  disposed  to  the  movement,  saw  them- 
selves in  the  clumsy  position  of  appearing  more 
patriotic  Englishmen  or  Americans  than  the  very 
governments,  allegiance  to  which  they  have  loudly 
and  repeatedly  acclaimed  from  the  house-tops. 
The  reptilian  press  of  this  element  on  both  sides 


436  HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS 

of  the  Atlantic  is  even  now  still  showing  some 
fight,  while  several  of  the  rabid  anti-nationalists 
in  America  have  not  overlooked  the  opportunity  of 
once  again  courting  the  publicity  of  the  daily  press 
by  repeating  their  now  trite  enouncement  that 
Zionism  is  incompatible  with  real  Americanism. 
In  England  the  leaders  of  this  element  have  or- 
ganized "The  League  of  British  Jews"  which 
aims  to  supplant  the  notoriously  anti-Zionist 
"Board  of  Deputies,"  though  it  curiously  enough 
seeks  "to  facilitate  the  settlement  in  Palestine  of 
such  Jews  as  may  desire  to  make  Palestine  their 
home"  at  the  same  time  as  it  declares  one  of  its 
main  objects  to  be  "to  resist  the  allegation  that 
Jews  constitute  a  separate  political  nationality." 
It  is  clear  that  it  is  but  the  last  stand  made  by 
the  Jewish  anti-nationalists  in  what  has  become  for 
them  a  hopeless  fight.  The  accession  to  the  ranks 
of  the  Zionists  of  Lord  Walter  Lionel  Rothschild 
in  England  and  the  sympathetic  attitude  toward 
the  movement  assumed  latterly  by  Jacob  H.  Schiff 
in  America,  is  eloquent  testimony  to  the  resist- 
less sweep  of  the  Zionist  ideal  in  quarters  hither- 
to deemed  impenetrable. 

The  fall  of  Jerusalem  in  the  Hannukkah  week 
of  5678  (December  10,  1917),  before  General  Al- 
lenby's  forces,  five  weeks  after  the  publication  of 
Lord  Balfour's  letter  to  Rothschild,  thus  placing 
in  the  possession  of  the  British  most  of  the  Pales- 
tinian territory,  has  served  to  add  to  the  jubila- 
tion of  the  nationalists  and  to  make  England's 
declaration  even  more  certain  of  fulfillment.  What- 
ever the  outcome  of  the  Great  War,  it  is  extremely 
unlikely,  were  it  even  possible  for  Germany  to 
win,  that  the  united  Christian  conscience  of  the 
world  would  suffer  the  return  of  the  Holy  Land 
to  the  Turks.  England  will  not  let  go  of  the  land 
now  that  she  has  it,  and  England  will  never  go 


Copyright  by  Undeitvood  6°  Undeiivood 

GENERAL  ALLF.NBY   ENTERING  JERUSALEM 
(See  page  436) 


NATIONALIST    REVIVAL    AND    ZIONISM  437 

back  on  her  promise  to  the  Jews.  "We  rejoice," 
said  Dr.  S.  S.  Wise  at  the  Carnegie  Hall  celebra- 
tion in  New  York  (December  23,  1917),  "over 
nothing  more  than  'a  scrap  of  paper/  but  that 
scrap  of  paper  is  written  in  English.  It  is  signed 
by  the  British  Government  and  therefore  is  sacred 
and  inviolable."  But  it  is  no  longer  a  question  of 
the  English  making  good  this  promise  but  of  the 
Jews  proving  equal  to  the  responsibility  which  is 
now  theirs.  "Men,  Money  and  Discipline"  were 
the  three  factors  cited  by  Justice  Brandeis  before 
the  Baltimore  conference  of  the  Provisional  Zion- 
ist Committee  (December  16)  as  the  great  pre- 
requisite for  the  final  realization  of  Jewish  hopes 
in  the  New  Zion,  and  they  who  know  the  strength 
of  the  Zionist  sentiment  among  all  classes  of  Jews 
will  find  no  cause  for  doubt  that  these  conditions 
will  be  fully  met,  and  that  the  Jewish  conquest 
of  the  land  by  the  peaceful  means  of  commerce  and 
agriculture  will  speedily  follow  its  military  con- 
quest by  English  arms.  The  final  stage  of  the 
Auto  emancipation  has  come,  and  none  but  the 
wavering  and  the  backsliders  can  fail  in  the  su- 
preme duty  of  a  great  historic  hour. 


THE   END 


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York,  1904. 

Hyamson,  Albert  M.,  "Palestine:  The  Rebirth  of  an  Ancient  Na- 
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Philipson  and  Louis  Grossman,  Cincinnati,  1900. 


INDEX 


A 


Aargau — Swiss   Canton   grant- 
ing equality  to  Jews,  1862..31,  32 
Abbott,   G.  F.,  author  of  "Is- 
rael in  Europe"    85 

Abdul  Hamid, 

405,  410,  413,  414,  424 

Abendblatt 305 

Aberdeen   District    351 

Abiezer  142 

Abraham — as  a  source  of  bless- 
edness    64 

Abraham,  Samuel   158 

Abramovitch,     Shalom     Jacob 
(Mendele  Mokher  Seforim) 

151,  176,  183-5 

Abyssinia    353 

Achi  Baba  Hill  430 

Actions  Committee   410,  418 

Adelaide,  Congregation  of   ...348 

Adler,  Dr 349 

Adler,   Cyrus    243 

Adler,    Henry    264 

Adler,  Jacob  P 326 

Adler,  Liebman    272,277 

Adler,  Dr.   Nathan    16 

Adler,  Samuel   266,  271-2 

Adrianople    214 

Africa   70,  345 

Aguilar,   Grace    274 

"Ahabath   Ziyyon"    150 

Ahad  Haam  ....174,  177,  312,  408 
418,  423,  433-4 

Ahasuerus    35 

"Ahavat  David  u  Mikhal" 152 

Ahiasaf,  publishing  house   172 

Ahlwardt,  Herman  48-9 

Ain  Zeitun,  colony  of 380 

Aix  La  Chapelle,  Congress  of.  94 

Aksenfeld,  Israel    182 

Albany  30,  254-5,  259,  262 


Alexander  I   (1801-1825)— 

attitude   towards   the 

Jews 90-9 

idea  of  Jewish  colonies, 

106,  208 
Alexander  II 

abandons   cantonist    sys- 
tem of  conscription. .  .102 
accession  to  throne.    ...123 
character  and  work...  124-5 
murder  of  ....161,  216.  376 

Alexander  III  80,  162-5 

190,  193,  204 
245,  294,  376,  395 
Alexandria,  Egypt   ..213,  275,  429 
Algeria — Allegiance  of  Jews  in  26 
results    of    Dreyfus    af- 
fair in   77 

subsiding    of    antisemit- 

ic  propaganda  in 79 

Algiers — agitation       of       Max 

Regis  in  77 

dissolution    of    the    city 

council    78 

arrest  of  Regis 79 

Aliens  Bill   (1904)    84 

reintroduced  in  Parliament..  86 

Mkalai,  Rabbi  Judah    370 

Allenbv,  General  E.  H.  H.  . .  .436 
4Ugemcine   Zeitung    des   Jud- 
cntlnincs — Supporter   of   lib- 
eral Judaism   16,  44 

Alliance  Israelite  Universelle — 

founding   19 

influence  56 

schools  in  Orient 217 

intercession    in    Serbia.. 218 
intercession    in    Rouma- 

nia   226 

educational    work 231 

at  Congress  of  Berlin. .  .234 
colonization  in  U.  S., 

296,  298,  372,  394,  409 


440 


INDEX 


441 


Alliance,  N.  J 

"Al  Parashat  Derakhim".. 174 

Alsace-Lorraine  57 

Alt  Ofen,  Hungary  21 

America   9,  14,  21,  46, 

49,  80,   117,  245,  250, 

251,  261,  267,  274,  286, 

294-5,   429,    436 

American    Hebrew    Congrega- 
tions,  Union   of    315 

American  Israelite. 30,  259-60,  27(J 

American  Jew 336,  344,  361 

American  Jewish  Committee.337-8 
American  Jewish   Congress    ..343 

American  Jewry    340,    342- 

American  Judaism    . . . 

American  Russian  Orthodoxy. 314 

Am  Olam  society  

Amsterdam — Jews   of    Sephar- 

dic  origin  in  4 

Ananiev    » 

Anglo-Jewish  Association, 

82,  231,  243 

Anglo-Palestine   Co 427 

Angola   421 

Anshe   Emet   Congregation   of 

Albany  256 

Antaeus    427 

Antietam    .' 282 

Antin,  Mary   306,  309 

Antisemites,      use      Rohling's 

"Talmud  Jew"  39 

Antisemites 

playing  upon  French 
fear  of  German  inva- 
sion    65 

in     control     of     French 

government    72- 

Polish,    combine    against 

Jews    

Antisemites — r  e  t  u  r  n    to    of- 
fice in  Algiers   78 

use  Russian  immigration 

as  propaganda 80-1 

Antisemitism — 

political  and  scientific  34-35 
German,    political    phase 

of   40,  44 

decrying  of,  by  German 

Crown  Prince   45 

German,  extent  of  45 

Lueger's  work  5C 

Clerical  party's  share  in.  52 

French    55-57 

Leroy  Beaulieu's  opinion 
Of  .  59 


298  Antisemitism — 


Dreyfus    affair,    as    ex- 
pression of   65-6 

work     on     history     and 

causes  of — by  Lazare.  70 
Governmental     influence 
during    time    of    sup- 
posed   guilt    of    Drey- 
fus     71,  81-83 

preachers  of,  in  England  86 
extent  of,  in  Europe, 

346,  357 
Antonio — Jew  as   playing  part 

of,  in  Dreyfus  affair 66 

3  Apion    35 

250-68  Arabia,  southern  427 

Arabs 392 

296  Ararat 362 

Arbeiter  Ring  328 

Arbeiter  Zeitung   .- 305 

163  Argentina,  Jews  of  302 

Argentine  Republic, 

301,  396,  402-3,  413 

Armenians    405 

Artom,  Isaac  29 

'Asaka   de-Rispak" 152 

Asch,  Shalom  188 

Ascher  family  in  Canada   249 

'Asenat    Bat-Potipherah"    152 

'Ashmat  Shomeron"   150 

Asia    403 

Askalon 432 

Asmonean  256,  258 

Association  of  Jewish  Rabbis. 408 
Astrakhan— added  to  "Pale"..  92 
Astruc — Chief  Rabbi  of  Brus- 
sels     232 

3  Athens,  Jewish   Community. .  .214 

Atlanta    284 

206  Augsburg 16 

Australia.... 345,  346-348,  350,  421 

Austria    284,  351 

Austria-Hungary — 

lull   in   religious   contro- 
versies   in    9-10 

defeat   of,   at   hands   of 

Italians    19,  21 

success  of  Reform  in...  23 
treatment  of  Reform  in.  24 
influence  of  Clericalism 

in 25 

success   of   Italian   arms 

against    26 

ceding  of  Venice  by 27 

Antisemitism  in 50 

most     formidable     Anti- 


442 


INDEX 


Austria  H.ungary — 

Semite  of 5] 

interest     in     Roumanian 

Jewish  situation   in... 230 
Austrians — 

supposed   contraband 
trade  of  Russian  Jews 

with    105 

"Ayit  Zabua"  150 

B 

Baal  Shem,  Israel  97,  244 

"Baba  Buch"    180 

Bacher,  W 177 

Balfour,  Hon.  A.  J.,  84,  432,  436 

Balkan  Peace  Conference 243 

Balkan  States 

severed  from  Turkey... 234 
at  Congress  of  Berlin, 

235,  264 

Balkan  Wars   243 

Ballarat,  Congregation  of 348 

Baltimore,  31,  250,  262-3,  270,  303, 

421 
Bamberger,  Ludwig 

in  Reichstag    37 

aid  to  Bismarck.. 41,  168,  229 

Barit,    Jacob    161 

BarKokba 431 

Barnato,    Barney    351-352 

Barondess,  Joseph   304 

Bartholdi's  Statue  of  Liberty. 291 

Bastille    

Basel 33,330,386,408,  417 

Beaconsfield,   Lord    .82,   231,   234, 

236,  376 

Beer  Sheba   432 

Beer  Tobiyah  380 

Beilis,  Mendel   197-202,  207 

Belfast 82 

Belgium  87,  369 

Belerade    218-19 

Belkowsky  419 

Ben   Avigdor 

Bender,  A.  P 350 

Pendis-o  34» 

Ben  Nahman.  Rabbi  Moses... 358 

"Ben  Shinne  Arayot" 153 

Bene  Israel,  Congregation  of, 

Cincinnati  25? 

Beni — Israel  353 

Bene  Yeshurun  Congregation, 

of  Cincinnati  259 

Benjamin,  Judah  P 278,  279 

"Ben  Uziel,"  Letters  of  1 


Ben  Yehudah,  E 173,  423 

Berditchefsky,  M.  J 177,  189 

Bergen    1 

Berkovich,  D 176 

Berkowitz    311 

Berlin,    Cultural    Work   in,   by 

Wessely   6 

first   Reform   Temple   in  10 

schools  in 11 

activity      of      Orthodox 

Party  at    13 

activity  of  Reform  Party 

at 14 

Senior  Sachs  in 15 

home  of  Michael   Sachs  16 
home  of  Prof.  M.  Laza- 
rus     .•••-1?.  31 

estimated  conversions  in 

1899-1903    50 

anti-Jewish  measures, 
60-135,  252,  284,  385,  410,  425 

Berlin,  Moses   . .' 127 

Berliner,  Abraham 10,  177 

Bernassoni,  Colony  of 301 

Bernays,  Jacob    11 

Berne — 

American  Minister  at  . .  30 
Jewish      Professors      at 

University  of  31 

Bernfeld,  S 175,  177 

Bernheim,  Chas.  L 296 

Bernstein,  Aaron    37 

209  Bernstein,  Edward    37 

Bernstein,  Herman   308 

Bernstein,  Hirsh    316 

Berr,  Michael  91 

Bershadsky,  J 176 

Bessarabets   194 

Bet  ha-Midrash  ha-Godol  Con- 
gregation of  New  York 294 

Beth-El    Congregation    of   Al- 
bany    254 

Beth-El,  Pulpit  of  307 

Beth  Elohim,  Congregation  of 

Charleston,  S.  C 255,  263 

Bethlehem   Yehudah    297 

"Bet-Yehudah."  by  Levinsohn.139 

Rezalel    School    428 

P.ialik,  H.  N 175.  189 

Bibescu,  George,  ruler  of  Wal- 

lachia    224 

Bible,  cited  in  support  of  slav- 
ery  276 

Bible.  Leeser's  translation 274 

Bielinsky    157 


INDEX 


443 


Bien,  Julius  284 

Bijur,  M 31 

Bikkure   ha-Ittim    146 

"Bi-mezulot  Yam"   152 

Bingham,  General  Theodore  ..336 

Birnbaum,  Nathan   405 

Bismarck — 

anti -Jewish     activity     of 

34,  40,  41 

his  alliance  with  the  Lib- 
erals   38,  42,  43,  46 

his  half-hearted  meas- 
ures against  Antisem- 
ites,  '47,  162,  233-234,  376 

"Biur" — of  Mendelssohn 134 

"Bi-Yeshibbah     Shel     Maalah 
ubi  -  Yeshibbah     Shel     Mat- 

tah"    176 

Bjornson,  Bjornstjerne  412 

Elaine,  James  G 337 

Bleichroeder,      Baron      Gerson 

von 234 

Bleichroeder,  Julius    232 

Bloemfontein,   Synagogue  of.. 350 
Bloomgarden,  Solomon   ..323,  324 
Bludov,    Count,   Russian    Min- 
ister of  the  Interior 108 

"Blue  Book,"   British    236 

Blumenberg,    Provost   Marshal 

Leopold    281 

Bnai  Brith,  Order,  227,  231,  284-5 
Bne  Moshe,  Order  of.... 328,  394 
Board  of  Delegates  of  Ameri- 
can Israelites    227-74 

Board  of  Deputies  436 

Bodenheimer,  Dr 406 

Boer  War  81,  352 

Bogrow,  Grigori   131,  136 

Boisdeffre — his     part     in     the 

Dreyfus  Affair 73 

Bokhara,  Jews  of  427 

Bolsheviki    210 

Bombay   353-354 

Bonaparte,  Napoleon  363 

Bonn   363 

Boston  262 

Boulanger,   General 

attempts  to  overthrow 
French  Government  . .  58 

Bourbons,  overthrow  of    209 

Bradford,  England,  synagogue 

at    14 

Brafmann,    Jacob — his    attacks 

on  Jews   160 

Brainin,  Reuben  173,  189 


Brandeis,   Louis   Demebitz, 

334,  342,  435,  437 

Brandes,  Eduard  8 

Brandes,  Georg  Morris  Cohen  8-9 

Braudes,  Reuben  Asher 151 

Brandstadter,  M 151,  244 

Bratianu — Premier      of      Rou- 

mania  226,  235-7 

Braunschweig  Reform  Confer- 
ence   268 

Braunstein,  M 244 

Brazil  —  Jewish      emigration 

from    245 

Brazul — Brushkowsky, 

investigator  in  Beilis  af- 
fair   201-2 

Brenner,  J.  H 176 

Breslau — home  of  first  rabbini- 
cal seminary  in  Germany  . .  11 

Conference  at   268 

Brisbane — Congregation  of    ...348 

Brith  Abraham  Order   285 

British  Empire — 

industrial  and  Economic 
prospects  in  closing 
year  of  19th  century..  79 

British    Isles    81,    346 

British  Proclamation  432 

British   Royal   Commission   on 

Alien   Immigration    411 

Brown,   Mrs. — Jewish  midwife 

to  Czar's  household  104 

Bruck,  Moses,  officer  in  Hun- 
garian revolutionary  move- 
ment    20 

^rudno,  Ezra    308 

Brussels — Exile    home    of    Ig- 

natz  Einhorn   21 

Jewish  Congress  at 231 

Buber,   Solomon    11 

Buchanan,  United  States  Presi- 
dent   31,  279 

Bucharest — Anti-Jewish      riots 

in 222-3,  226 

Budapest — opposition     to     the 

Reform  movement  in   10 

rabbinical  seminary  in. . .   11 
special   Jewish    divisions 
against     Croatians     in 

1848   20 

suffering  of  Jews  in....  21 
Government    suppression 

of  Reform    22 

Congress  of  Jews  in 
1864  .  .22 


444 


INDEX 


Budapest — 

Dr.      Kayserling,      rabbi 

of    32 

Anti- Jewish  riots  (1882)  53 

Buedinger,  Max   269 

professor    in    University 

of  Zurich    31 

Buenos  Ayres    301-302 

Bulgaria,  Jews  of 

sufferers     in     revolution 

against  Turkey  216 

given  equal  rights 216 

ritual      murder      charge 

against    216-7 

population  of  219 

Bulgarian  Antisemites 

influenced  by  Russia  and 

Germany    216 

Bunker  Hill  Monument  285 

Buschoff,  Adolph  —  German 
Jewish  victim  of  ritual  mur- 
der charge  47,  48 

B.  Y.  L.  U.  (V.)   

Byzantine  Empire  221 

Byron,  Lord   


Cahan,  Abraham   305, 

Caine,  Hall  412 

Calcutta,   Synagogue   in   354  Chath 

California,    discovery    of    gold 

in    

Canada 

Jewish  immigration  into, 


Jewish  pioneers  in 

parliament  of  248 

later  Jewish  settlers  in 

249,  265,  421 

Canadian  Zionist  Federation.  .435 
Cantonists — child    recruits    un- 
der   Nicholas    1 102 

Cape  Colony,  Jews  in  351 

Cape  Town  350-1 

Carmel,   N.  J ....29* 

Caradja,  ruler  of  Wallachia . . 223 

Cassel,   David    10 

Cassel,  Paulus, 

in  Defense  of  ^the  Jews  45 
Catharine  IT  of  Russia, 

discriminates  against  the 
Jews  90 

expels  the  Jews  . . . 
Catharine  the  Great   208 


Catholic  Church 

counter  reformation  in..   12 
reactionaries     as     cause 

of  anti-semitism   in...  33 
waning    influence   of,    in 

France    55 

attitude    of    Nicholas    I 

toward  100 

Catholics — 

as  objectors  to  state  in- 
fluence    over     Jewish 

affairs  in  Germany 13 

legislation    for,    in   Aus- 
tria      25 

Caucasia — added  to  "Pale", 

38,  40,  56,  92 

Caucasus — exile      of      recalci- 
trant  Christians  to    95 

Cavour,  Count  29 

Cazalet    '.365 

Central  Conference  of  Ameri- 
can Rabb.is 266,  343,  407 

379  Central  European  Powers 243 

.Central    Relief    Committee 340 

364  Chamberlain    417 

Chapultepec   276 

Charles  XII  (of  Sweden) 

influence  of  Jewish   fin- 
anciers upon  2 

308  Charleston,  S.  C. 

252,  255,  267,  286-7 

am  Square  Cemetery 246 

Chazanowicz,  Dr.  Joseph 386 

321 

Cherche — Midi,    scene    of    the 

Esterhazy  court  martial  71 

245-6  Cheberiak,  Vera  199,  201 

247  Chernishewsky    157 

"Cherta"     ("Pale"    of    Settle- 
ment)     90 

Chesterfield   298 

Chiarini,    Bishop,    attacks    the 

Talmud    113 

Chicago   262,  271,  277 

rhickamauga,  Battle  of 282 

Christ — Jews    as    alleged    ene- 
mies of  39,  43 

Christian    IV,    King    of    Den- 
mark    4 

Christians.     Jewish     intermar- 
riage with  3 

participate    in    Germany 
in    movement    against 

Antisemitism 40 

89  Christians — transfer  of  Jewish 
trade  to,  by  Nicholas  1 105 


INDEX 


445 


Christians — 

separation  of  Jewish 
settlements  from  those 
of,  in  Siberian  col- 
onization   106 

given  permission  to  rent 
land  from  Jewish  col- 
onists of  New  Russia.107 
Chiarini's  assertions  for 
Talmudic  sanction  for 
Jewish  wrongdoing  to- 
ward   

supervisors     of     Jewish 

schools    115 

Christianity  —  proselytism      of 

Jews  to,  in  Denmark 

conversion  of  Jews  to, 
for  removal  of  disabil- 
ities    34 

Jews  as  enemies  of 39 

cause   of   embracing   of, 

by  Jews   50 

Failure  of  conversion  of 

Jews  to   95 

Christian  Socialist  Party 376 

Chwolson,  Daniel,  apostacy  of 

130,  136 
Cincinnati  —  German     Jewish 

settlers  9,  11,  19,  250 

Drs.  Wise  and  Lillien- 
thal  in. 259-261,  264-5,  268 

Civil  War 276,282,289 

Clara — colony  of 301 

Clemenceau,  Albert 

lawyer  for  Zola 72 

as   premier    76 

Cleveland,  Conference  of, 

261,  262,  270,  284 
Cogalniceanu,  Roumanian  dele- 
gate   to    Congress    of    Ber- 
lin     235-6 

Cohen,    Edward    348 

Cohen,  H.  E 348 

Cohen,  Jacob   175 

Cohen,  J.  J 348 

Cohen,  M.  J." 31 

Cohen,   Samuel    34 

Colin,  Albert  16,  372 

Cohn,  Ephraim    426 

Cohn,  Dr.  Elkan 262,272 

College  of  Physicians  and  Sur- 
geons of  Lower  Canada 247 

Collins,    Charles    348 

Colorado    299 

Columbus    245 

Commission  of  Jewish  Educa- 


tion in  Russia  122 

"Commission       for       Finding 

Ways    and    Means    for    the 

Radical      Transformation      of 

the  Jews  of  Russia" 116 

Committee  of  Union  and  Prog- 
ress     424 

Confederate  Army   276-8 

'onfederation  —  North  Ger- 
man, grants  full  emancipa- 
tion of  Jews  37,  41 

bngress,  American   30,47 

protests      against      Rou- 
manian     injustice      to 
Jews  ...v...229,  243,  305 
thanks    Major    de    Leon 

for  bravery  276,  305 

Congress  of  Berlin   231-4 

Congress,    General   Jewish,   of 

Hungary    22 

Conquest  of  World  by  Jews"  56 
'onstantine,  Grand  Duke — let- 
ler  to  by  Isaac  Baer  Levin- 

sohn    113 

Constantinople   214 

flight  of  Bulgarian  Jews 

to   216 

Russia's  desire  for    221 

meeting  place  of  confer- 
ence      of       European 
powers.. 232,  410,  413,  429 
ooper  Union,  Ahlwardt's  anti- 

semitic  lectures  in 49 

Copenhagen  —  permission     to 

hold  Jewish  worship  in  4 

ritual  murder  case 5 

Wessely  family  in 6 

destruction     of     syna- 
gogue of   7 

ministers  of   9 

brdova,   Jewish   Communities 

in    301 

brfu,  emancipation    of    Jews 

of   214-5 

blood  accusations  against 

Jews 215 

boycott     against     Etrog 

trade    of    215 

"orriere  Israelitico  27 

Cossacks  —  their    attitude    to- 
ward    Jewish     colonists     of 

Ekaterinoslav   110 

ourland — pioneer  Jewish  col- 
onists for  Siberia  from  108 

conquered  by  Germany.  .208 
owen,  Joseph  434 


446 


INDEX 


Courier,  Yiddish  daily  319  de 

Court  of  Cassation — Zola's  ap- 
peal to   72 

annuls  Dreyfus  sentence 

of    1894    73 

reopens   Dreyfus  case.75,  76 
Cracow — Jewish  liberalism  in.  23 
home     of      Rabbi     Dob 

Berush   Meisels 24 

Creagh — anti-Jewish     speeches 

of    

Cremieux,  Adolphe 

intercedes     with     Ionian 

Senate    215 

intercedes     with     Prince 

Milan    219 

intercedes     with     Prince 

Charles   226,  227 

Attends         International 
Jewish  Conference, 

231    358 

Crimean  War  18,  218',  225 

Croatians — special      Hungarian 

Jewish  division  against    ....  20 
"Cry  of  the   Daughter  of  Ju- 

dah"   91 

Culberson,   Senator    339 

Cultural  Zionism   393 

Curia    39 

Cuza,  John  Alexander  225 

Cyrenaica  421 


D 


Dardanelles  

Damascus,      blood      accusation 

of    140,  274 

Dankovitz,    Dr.,     Chief    Rabbi 

of  Bulgaria   217 

Darmstetter,  Arsene   110 

Darmstetter,  James   

David,  Aaron  Hart  247 

David,  David  247 

David,  Lazarus    247 

David   Sasoon   Benevolent   In- 
stitution     354 

"David  u-Barzilai"   152 

Davidson,    Thomas    412 

Davis,  President  Jefferson,  278-81 

"Debir"    142 

Deborah  259 

de  Cordova  24! 

de  Freycinet  5 

de  Guenzburg,  Baron  Horace.  16 


Hirsch,  Baron,  fund  in  Can- 
ada    249 

'Derek    Selulah"    (The    Paved 

Road)    114 

de  Haas,  Jacob  435 

in  U.  S 298,  300 

de  Leon,  Major  David  C 276 

Lima,  family  of  4 

Demange — Dreyfus'   lawyer   in 

trial  at  Rennes    75 

84Dembitz,  Lewis   Naphtali..277,  310 
Denmark — Beginnings  of  Jews 

in    4 

responsiveness  to  reforms    7 

Antisemitism  in 8 

rabbis  succeeding  Mann- 

heimer   in    9 

Denver   284 

Den  (Day)    129 

de  Pass,  Daniel 351 

Deputation,    Jewish,    abolition 

of   95 

Deputies,  House  of  (Hungary) 
members'  attempt  to  de- 
prive Jews  of  Consti- 
tutional rights    53 

Chamber  of  Deputies 

(France) 57 

excitement   in,   due   to 

Dreyfus  affair  72 

Derenbourg,  Hartwig   10 

Derenbourg,  Joseph   10,  231 

Derzhavin,  poet,  suggests  to 
Alexander  I  idea  of  Jewish 

colonization    106 

de  Sola   family  in  Canada 249 

Sola,  Clarence  1 435 

Dessau  —  home     of     Ludwig 

Philippson U 

Detroit   262 

Devils'    Island    '.'.'.  67 

de  Worms,  Baron  Henry 232 

)  Dick,  Isaac  Meir   183 

Deinard,    Ephraim    317 

Dienesohn,  Jacob   186 

Diet,  of  Hungary, 

discusses      question     o  f 

Jewish  rights   21 

dissolution  of 22 

Diet,     of    Prussia,     for     state 

control  of  schools   39 

"Digest  of  Reported  Proceed- 
ings of  Supreme  Court  of 
Late  Territoryof  Orleans  and 
of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
Louisiana  279 


429  de 


INDEX 


447 


Dilke,    Sir    Charles — opponent 

to  Aliens'  Bill 84 

Dillon,     Eliezer — purveyor     of 

food  to  Russian  army 

elected   Deputy   to   elec- 
toral college  9' 

"Discovery     of     America" — by 
Campe,  Hebrew  version  of 

Disraeli,  Benjamin   363,  376 

Disraeli,     as      interpreted     by 

Georg  Brandes    8 

Dmowski,  Roman,  Polish  Anti- 

semite   206 

Dolitzky,  Menahem  M....175,  318 

Domoshevitzky    176 

"Don  Kishot  mi — Mazepevka".l7( 
"Dor  Tahapukhot' ' 
Douglas,  Mr.  Aker 

Doylestown,    Pa 300 

Drachman,  Rabbi  Bernard.315,  330 
Dreyfus,  Alfred — defended  by 

Leroy-Beaulieu 65 

conditions  against 66 

German       attitude       to-.. 

ward    67-8 

Picquart's   activity   for..  6$ 
Defense  of,  by  Lazare.70-3 
France's    fear   of   grant- 
ing justice  to  74 

second  conviction  of, 

75,  76,  77,  78,  79 
Dreyfus,  family  of,  denied  rep- 
resentation at  Esterhazy  trial  71 
Dreyfus,  Matthew,  his  activity 

in  Dreyfus  affair  69,  70 

Dropsie  College    307 

Drumont,  Edouard  Adolphe, 

35,  57-8 

aid  to  Max  Regis 78-82 

Dubnitza — growth     of     Jewish 

community  in  216 

Dubno,  Solomon  134 

Dunbnow,  S.  M 174,  311 

Dubs,    Zuerich    Jewish    repre- 
sentative in  Federal  Council, 

Switzerland    31 

Dubsevage,  A.  D 317 

Duenner,  Dr.  J.  H 406 

Duma,  Russian   190,  198,  206 

Dumas,  Alexander  365 

Du    Paty   de    Clam,    chief    ac- 
cuser of  Dreyfus   73 

Durban,  Synagogue  in   350 

Dwa  Groschi  20f 

Dymov,   Osip    326 


E 


East  Africa   «..417 

Eastern  Jewry  404 

Edelstadt,   David    322 

Eden 64 

"Efes  Dammim"   (no  blood)..  140 

Egypt   362,  429,  431 

Ehrenpreis,  Dr.  M 41,  217 

Eichenbaum    134 

Einhorn,  Dr.  David. . .  .10,  21,  262, 
263,  269,  272,  277 
Einhorn,  Ignatz 

founder  of  Jewish  Re- 
form Ass'n  of  Buda- 
pest    10 

participates  in  Hunga- 
r  i  a  n  revolutionary 

movement    20 

Result  of  his  participa- 
tion in  Hungarian 

revolution 21 

Einhorn,  Dr.  Max   307 

Eisenstadt,  Michael — deputy  to 

Jewish  electoral  college 94 

Eisenstein,  J.  D 317,  318 

Ekron  Colony   379 

El-Arish    416 

Elijah,  Gaon  of  Vilna   97-8 

Hot,  George   365,  383 

Elizabeth,       Empress,       expels 
Jews  from  Little  Russia  ...  89 

ilkus,  Abraham   1 341 

Ellinger,    Moritz    284-296 

manu-El,  pulpit  of   307 

indinger  —  Jewish  Community 

of    31 

Inelow,  Hyman  G 307 

ingland — progress     of     Relig- 
ious Liberalism  in   14 

removal  of  Jewish  Dis- 
abilities in  18 

safety  from  invasion  by 

Polish  Jews  of  44 

Antisemitism  in  55-87 

home  of  Zola  after  trial  72 
Antisemitic     feeling     in, 

during  Dreyfus  affair  79 
Antisemitic  preachers  in  81 
immigration  of  Russian 

Jews  to    80 

Jews  in  office  in 82,  83 

Jews  as  national  evil 
in  ..82-83 


448 


INDEX 


English-Jewish    immigrants   to 

America   24, 

English-Polish     synagogue     in 

New  York   ...25; 

Entre  Rios,  Province  of 30' 

Eotvos,  Baron  Joseph   2't 

Eppinger,  Dr.  Solomon 26! 

Epstein,  Samuel 9- 

Erez  Yisroel 

Erter,  Dr.  Isaac 23,  135,  147 

Esterhazy,   Major   68-7; 

Etrog  trade  of  Corfu  214 

Ettinger,  Dr.  Solomon   182 

Ettinger,  Wilhelm   182 

Euchel,  Isaac  6 

Europe,  Georg  Brandes  among 

men  of  letters  in 8 

Jewish  Reform  in,   1856 

14,  18 

Rome  as  center  of  anti- 
Jewish  prejudice  in   . .  28 
promising     outlook     for 

Jews  of  33 

advance  of  Reason  in, 
after  French  Revolu- 
tion   34 

Antisemitic  standpoint  of 

Jews  as  menace  to  ...  36 
Jewish   insecurity   in, 

55,  345,  346-7,  359,  403. 
427-8 

Ewald,  Prof 307 

Ezekiel,  Joseph   353 

Ezra   369,  392 


Faitlovitch,   Dr.   Jacob 353 

Falashas  353 

Faure,    Felix  —  President    of 

France    73 

Fay,  Dr.   Theodore,   American 

Minister  at  Berne  30,  31 

Feder,  Tobias  134,  181 

Federation  of  American  Zion- 
ists     330 

Federation  of  Jewish  Farmers.300 

Feierberg,  Mordecai  Zeeb 178 

Feigin — Converted  Jew  in   of- 
fice under  Nicholas  I 103 

Felsenthal,   Rabbi   Bernard. .. .272 
Fenenko — gov't  investigator  in 

Beilis  affair    199 

Fernhoff,  Yitzhak  173 


[Fink,  Theodore   348 

Finland,  defense  of,  by  Georg 

Brandes  8 

Firkowitch,  Abraham    130 

Fish,  Hamilton.   United  States 

Secretary  of  State  229 

"Five  Years  of  My  Life" 73 

Florence — 

conference      of      Italian 

Jews  in   (1867)    27 

transfer     of     Rabbinical 

Seminary  to   28 

Fokshani    224 

Folticheni    224 

Forsyth,  John  275 

Fort   Sumter    277 

Fo'rwaerts 305,  319 

Fould,  Achille — French  Jewish 

Minister  of   Finance 25 

Frain d  18S,  189 

France — exponents    of    Jewish 

science  in    10 

existence    of    Rabbinical 

Seminary  in   12 

liberalism  of  government 

towards  Jews  of 25 

condition     of     Jews     in, 

after  1870   26 

treaties  with  Switzerland 

favoring  Jews 32 

Bismarck's   personal  tri- 
umph  against    33 

removal    of    Jews    from 
government      positions 

in    39 

Antisemitism  in   55,  59 

Jewish    self   expatriation 

for  love  of  57 

Leroy  Beauliett's  opinion 

of    67 

effect     on,     of     Dreyfus 

affair   68,  72 

reception  of  Dreyfus  in, 

at  time  of  new  trial..  74 
treatment     of     Jews     in 

Algeria  by    77 

influences      England      in  • 

anti-Jewish   opinion...  81 
refined  cruelty  of  Anti- 
semitism in  87 

Home  of  M.  Berr, 

91.  229-30 

(See  also  pp.  106,  363,  396, 
412,  434) 


Fiqaro — Antisemitic  agitation  in  S6,Francis  Joseph,  Emperor, 

Fink,  B.  J 348'  21,  24,  25 


INDEX 


449 


Franco-Prussian  War — 

liberal  tendencies  in  Ger- 
many after   37 

French    hatred    of    Ger- 
many after   57 

Frank,     Dr.  —  agitation     for 
school    reforms    by    (Russia, 

1800)    112 

Frankel,  Zacharias   11 

Frankfort— Ghetto  of   211 

Reform  conference  of.. 268 

Frankfort-on-Aiain    13,  16 

rival    of    Berlin    in    Or- 
thodoxy   17,  372 

Franks,  Colonel  Isaac 246 

Franks,  David  Salisbury   247 

Frederic,   Harold 109,  310 

Frederick  III,  of  Denmark....     4 

Free    Sons    of    Benjamin    285 

Free  Sons  of  Israel   285 

Freiberg,   Julius    264 

Freie  Arbeitcr  Stimme 319 

French    Revolution — beginning 
of   liberties    for   Swiss  Jews 

after    29 

enlightening  influence  on 
Western  Europe  of...  35 
91,  99 
Friedenwald,  Dr.  Harry  ..333,  435 

Friedenwald,  Herbert   243 

Friedman,  Myer   11,  177 

Friedlaender,  Prof.  M 406 

Friedman,   Isaac  K 309 

Frischman,  David   175,  386 

Frug,   Simon    186 

Frumkin,    M 423 

Fuchs,  Samuel  J 173 

Fuenn,   S.  J 143,  284 

Fuerst,   Julius    10 

Furrer,  Swiss  President 31 


Gabbe,   M.,  elected  to   Bulgar- 
ian Chamber  of  Deputies. .  .217 

Gabrielow,  Joseph 318 

Galicia,      Jewish      immigrants 

from  to  U.  S 293 

Galicia — obstacle     to     progress 

of  Reform  in  23,  293,  394 

Galilee    64 

Gallipoli  expedition    42S 

Gallipoli    Peninsula    430 

Galveston   278,  421-2 

Gambetta   56 

Gan    Perahim 172 


Gaon,  Elijah,  of  Vilna 141.  387 

Garcia,  Hananiel  247 

Garibaldi — Jewish  soldiers  with  26 
Caster,  Dr.  Moses   .  .240,  244,  434 

Gaza  432 

Geiger,  Abraham 

10,  16,  17,  18,  140,  251,  268 

Geiger,  Prof.  Ludwig  407 

General  Staff,  French... 69,  70,  73 
German  Jewish  immigrants  to 

the  United  States 250-3 

fraternal  orders  among  283 
supersede  Spanish  Jews. 292 
German  Jews  in  revolution  of 

1848    250 

German      Reformers      in     the 

United  States  267-268 

Germans,  enmity  of  French  to 
as  cause  of  Dreyfus  affair..  65 
supposed     contraband     trade 

of  Russian  Jews  with 105 

Germany — Haskalah  movement 

in 6 

religious  controversies  in    9 
leaders  of  Jewish  science 

in 10 

first  Rabbinical  Seminary 

in   11 

first  home  of  Reform  ...  12 
S.    R.    Hirsch   as   leader 

of  orthodox   forces  in  13 
Wilhelm,    first    Emperor 

of :•.•:•.   19 

Rise  of  Antisemitism  in.  34 
Catholic  view  of  Jewish 

aggressiveness  in    37 

results     of     anti-Jewish 
agitation  of   Pius   IX 

in 39,  40,  58 

progress  of  Socialism  in  41 

Jew  baiting  in  42-3 

Government    control    of 

education  in   44 

treatment  of  Russo-Jew- 

ish  immigrants,  in  46 

barbarous     attitude     to- 
ward Jews  of 47 

return   to,   of  Ahlwardt.  49 
defections     from     Juda- 
ism in   (1880)    50 

Antisemitic       movement 
in,    as   compared   with 
that     of     Austria  -  Hun- 
gary   51 

legal     emancipation      of 
Jews  in  54 


450 


INDEX 


Germany — 

ritual  murder  charge  in  55 
denunciation  of  Jews  as 

aliens  in   57 

source    of    Antisemitism 

in 59 

rivals   England   in   com- 
merce and  prosperity, 
influences    English    anti- 

semitic  feeling  81 

Jews     from,     in     Little 

Russia   

high    intellectual    status 

of  Jews  in  90 

intercession  by  Jews  of, 
on  behalf  of  Russian 
Jews  under  Nicholas 

I 

importation  into  Russia 
of  Jewish  pedagogues 

from  120 

(see  also  pp.  230,  273, 
401,  407,  416,  433,  436) 

Germiston    351 

Ghederah   379 

Ghetto— of  Rome  27-28 

Ghika,     Alexander,     ruler     of 

Wallachia  224 

Gielong    348 

Gilead  colony  298 

Ginzberg.        Asher         ("Ahad 

Haam")    174,  386,  391. 

408,  418,  423,  433-4 

Ginzberg,    Simon    176 

Girls'    School   at  Jaffa 423 

Gladstone   376 

Glagoleff,  Professor,  at  Beilis' 

trial    201 

Glass,  Montague   309 

Gliddon,  John    

Glueckstadt     (Schleswig    Hoi- 
stein) 6 

Godefroi,    M.   H.,    Minister  of 

Justice  in  Holland 

Goethe    112 

Gogol    130 

Goido    320 

Goldfaden,  Abraham, 

183,  319-20,  325 

Goldfogle,   Congressman    339 

Goldman,  Dr.  Julius 

Goldsmid.  Sir  Francis — 

memorializes,    House    of 

Commons    

attends  International 
Jewish  Conference  ...2 


Goldsmith,   Colonel  Albert 301 

Golitizin,  Minister  of  Ecclesi- 
astical Affairs  under  Alex- 
ander 1 94 

Gonse,  General,  Deputy  Chief 
of  French  General  Staff  at 

time   of   Dreyfus   affair 69 

79  Gordin,  Jacob  156,  326 

Gordon,  David   147,  375 

Gordon,  Judah  Loeb, 

128,  137,  151-2-3-4,  186,  385 

89  Gordon,   Major   Evans 411 

Gorky,  Maxim  412 

Gorodisky,   Lieutenant    431 

Gortschakoff,  Count 235-6 

Gothenberg    2 

Gottheil,   Dr.   Gustav 272,333 

106Gottheil,   Richard    ...330,333,398 

Gottlober,  A.  B 182 

Goudchaux,   Michel   26 

Graeber,   S.   1 173 

396Graetz,  Heinrich 7,  10-11,  375 

Graham,    Representative 339 

Grand     Island,     Jewish     State 

project  at    362 

Grant,  Ulysses  S..227-8,  261,  282-3 

Gratz,   Rebecca    286 

Great    Britain,    Jewish    aid    in 

supremacy  of   81 

Great  War.".  207,  214,  217,  243,  335 
Greece — 

German    Antisemitic    in- 
fluence in 215 

Jewish    sufferers    of    the 

revolution  of  1821.... 214 
political  emancipation  of 

Jews   in    215 

population  of  Jews  in, 

219,  364 

275  Greenberg,  D 322 

Greek  revolution,  cause  of  un- 
rest in  Roumania 224 

Grey,    Sir  Edward 243 

26  Grodno,  annexation  to  Russia.  88 
home    of     Sundel     Son- 

nenberg    93 

expulsion  of  Jews  from.  104 
Grosswardein,      Dr.      Leopold 
Rockenstein  as  rabbi  of  tem- 
ple of   20 

296  Gruenwald,    Dr.,    Chief    Rabbi 

of   Bulgaria    217 

Grushkofskv.  Corporal   430 

219Guedeman,  Dr.  M 406 

Guenzburg,  Baron  Horace 301 

232 Guenzburg,  Mordecai  Aaron. .  .119 


INDEX 


451 


Guenzig,  Dr.  Israel 182 

Guild,  Jr.,  Curtis 3.39 

Guildhall  meeting   in  London.  167 

Guizot   135 

Gurovich,  Marcus  127 

Gutheim,  James  K 272 

Guttenberg,  Violet   85 

Guttmacher,  Elijah  375 


H 


"Ha-Abot  veha-Banim" 151 

Ha-Boker  Or  148 

Hadassah   333 

Ha-Eshkol  173 

Haggard,   Rider    

Hague  Peace  Tribunal 190 

Ha-Ibri  

Haifa 425 

Ha-Karmel 144,  147 

"Ha-Kerav"    

Halberstadt,    Germany.... 

Halberstamm    11 

Halberton   298 

Hale,  Dr.  Edward  Everett ....  709 

Halifax     ....249 

Hamburg,  \\cssely  family  in..     6 

Ha-Meliz 147,  183,  189,  388 

Ha-Leomi    317 

Ha-Maggid  15,  146 

Haman    35 

Ha-Meassef    134 

Ha  -  Measseph  b'Erez  ha  -  Ha- 

dasha  317 

Hamilton,  Ontario   

Ha-Modiya  le-Hadashim   318 

"Ha-Neehabim  veha-Xeimim" .  186 
Hanotaux,  head  of  French  For- 
eign office  at  time  of  Dreyfus 

affair   68 

Hanover 32 

Ha-Pardes   174 

Hapgood,  Hutchins   

Ha-Pisgah 317 

Hapke,  Pastor  46 

Halevy,  Joseph  10,  147 

Harkavy,  Alexander   320 

Harris,  Rabbi  Mark  L.  350 

Harrison,  Representative  339 

Har     Sinai     Congregation     of 

Baltimore   263,  270 

Hart,  Aaron   246-47 

Hart,  Ezekiel  248 

Haskalah 

in  Galicia  23 


Haskalah — 

its  Russian  Jewish  lead- 
ers    98,  99 

its  influence  on  Russian 

Jewry   112 

the   impetus  given  to   it 
by  Mendelssohn  . .  133,  34 

the  heyday  of 144,  145 

Haskalah  Movement  in  Rus- 
sia   128,  135,  158 

Ha-Shahar   148,  171 

Hassidism — in  Galicia  23 

Ha-Tehiyah   15 

"Hatot  Neurim"    148 

Hay,  John    241 

Ha-Yonah   15 

4l2Ha-sebi    173 

Ha-zefirah  147,  189 

317  Ha-zman    318 

"Hazon  la-Moed"  143 

Hartuf,  Colony  of  380 

132  Haschiloah  175,  394 

17  Hasophe  b'Erez  ha- Had as ha.  ..317 

Ha-asif   172 

"Hebrat  Marbe  Haskalah"   ...155 
Hebrew  American  Typograph- 
ical Union  304 

Hebrew  Emigrant  Aid  So- 
ciety   296,  299 

Hebrew  Gymnasium  of  Jaffa.. 394 
Hebrew  Union  College, 

9,  11,  259,  264-266,  271-2,  315 

Hebron    Colony    298 

"Hefkerwelt,  Die" 181 

Hegeman,  John  47 

-Halus 146 

Heidelberg 351 

Heidelberg  University    384 

Heilprin,  Michael  ..277,  286-8,  307 

Heine,   Heinrich    323 

Heint   188 

Hekhal  ha-Ibriyah   319 

Heller,  Rabbi  Max  333 

309  Helvetia,  Council  of   29 

Henry,  Colonel,  accomplice  of 
Du  Paty  du  Clam  in  Drey- 
fus affair  73 

Henry,  Henry  S 296 

Hertz,  Chief  Rabbi  Joseph  H. 

350,  352 

Hertza    224 

Herzl,  Theodore, 
33,  196,  330,  357,  382,  397,  402-8. 
410,  413-15,  419,  420,  422-3,  425, 
432-3 
Hess,  Moses  ....371-5,  382-3,  398 


249  He 


452 


INDEX 


Hibbat  Ziyyon..330,  395,  397,  406 

Hightstown  298 

Hildesheimer,  Dr.  Israel. ..  .17,  18 
Hilfsverein  der  deutschen  Ju- 

den  425-6 

Hillquit,   Morris    305 

Hilsner,  Leopold  52-3 

Hirsch,  Baron  de, 

colonies    in   Argentina 

301,  396 
Hirsch,  Dr.  Emil  G. 271-2,  312,  407 

Levi 4 

Samson  Raphael   ...12,  373 

Samuel   10,  271 

Solomon    284 

Hirschbein,  Perez   188,  326 

"History     of     the     Israelitisch 

Nation" 256 

"Hobebe  Ziyyon," 

378,  385,  387.  406,  480,  383 
Hochschule    fuer   die   Wissen- 

schaft  des  Judenthums    18 

Hohenzollern,  Charles  von, 

first      King      of      Rou- 

mania   225,  237 

Holdheim,  Samuel .268 

Holland,    Jewish    responsibility 
for  prosperity  in  capital  of.     4 
liberalism    toward    Jews 

of 26 

Antisemitism  in  87,  245 

Holleschau      (Austria),     anti- 
Jewish  riots  in  52 

Hollingsworth    364-5 

Homel,  anti-Jewish  riots  in   ..196 

Hood,   Thomas    

House   Committee  on  Foreign 

Affairs    

House  of  Commons  

House    of    Lords — election    of 
Baron    Anselm    von    Roths- 
child to    25 

election      of      Nathaniel 

Rothschild  to   82 

Howells,  William  D 

Hruza,  Agnes  

Hudson  River   246 

Huebsch,  Dr.  Adolph 20, 

Hugues,  Clovis   58 

Hungary  —  Dr.      Hildesheimer 

as  rabbi  in  17-18 

struggle     between     Re- 
form   and    Orthodoxy 

in    20 

cessation   of  era   of  ab- 


solutism in 21 

Central  Organization  of 

Orthodox  Jews  in ....  22 
severity   of   Aus  rian 
government        toward 

Jews  of   24 

Antisemitic  agitation  in  53-4 

Hurewitz,  Israel  320 

Hurwitz,  M 326 

I 

Iberian  Peninsula   2 

Ignatieff,  General   164 

lies  de  Salut   67 

Illustrirte  Juedische  Zeitung...3l9 
Immigration   Reform   Ass'n...  83 
Independent   Order   Brith   Ab- 
raham     285 

India    433 

"Instruction  in  the  Mosaic  Re- 
ligion"     273 

Institute  for  the  Promotion  of 
Israelitish  Literature, 

11,  15,  16,  24 

Intercollegiate     Zionist     Asso- 
ciation     333 

International        Typographical 

Union    304 

Ionian  Senate, 

appealed      to     by     Cre- 

mieux   215 

Ireland — position  of  Jews  in..  85 
Isaacs,    Barnet    (Barney    Bar- 

nato)      351 

Isaacs,  J.  1 348 

322  Isaacs,  Myer   S 296 

Isaacs,  Nathaniel   352 

339  Isaacs,   Sir  Rufus    431 

229lsidor,    Dr.,    Chief    Rabbi    of 

France    231 

Israel  Baal  Shem  Tob  (Besht)144 
"Israel  chez  les  Nations"  (Le- 

roy  Beaulieu)    59 

Israel  in  Europe  85 

of  Mainz   18 

52  Israelitsche  Presse 319 

Israelitish  Religious  Society  ...12 
272  itaiv — founding  of  Padua  Rab- 
binical   School    12 

emancipation  of  Jews  of  26 

number  of  Jews  in 27 

Rome  becomes  capital  of  28 
liberality     towards     un- 
converted Jews  in   ...  29 
anti-Jewish    agitation    in  39 


INDEX 


453 


Italy- 


exile     home     of     Louis 

Kossuth 54,  434 

favors  solution  of  Rou- 
manian Jewish  prob- 
lem   229-30 

Itoism    421-2 

"Ivanhoe"    .  .286 


Jacobs,  Dr.  Joseph   294 

Jacobsohn,   Israel   252 

Jaffa 423,  428-9,  432 

Jalomstein,  M 317-18 

Jargon    180 

Jassy,  anti-Jewish  riots  in 222 

destroyed  by  fire 224 

Jastrow,  Dr.  Marcus. 272,  310,  333 

Jaures    72 

Jehuda  Halevi   '358 

Jellinek,  Adolph  10,  11 

Jerusalem, 

355,  358,  363,  392,  423,  429,  432, 
436 

Jcschurun   

Jesuit  orders,  persecution  of.. 

Jesus    101 

Jewish    Alliance    412 

Jewish  Colonial  Trust, 

410,  413,  427,  432 
Jewish  Colonization  Ass'n.381,  409 

"Jewish  Encyclopedia"   174 

Jewish   Farmers   Ass'n... 

Jewish   Gazette    315 

Jewish  National  Fund.410,  417, 

Jewish    National    Library 

Jewish  Publication  Society. ..  .274 

Jewish   Relief   Committee 340 

Jewish  .  Territorial     Organiza- 
tion     

Jewish   Theological    Seminary. 315 
Jewish  Women  in  Russia,  their 

enforced   prostitution    192 

Joachimsen,  Brigadier  General.282 

Job,  Book  of  272 

Joel,  Manuel   11,  44 

Johannesburg  Community   ....350 
Johannesburg  Hebrew  Congre- 
gation     350 

Joint   Distribution    Committee. 341 

Jones,  Henry   283 

Joscelowicz,  Colonel  Berek. . .  .203 

Joseph,    Micah    141 

Joseph,  Rabbi  Jacob   315 

Jost,  Marcus 10,  11 

Judah,  prophets  of 64 


"Judaism  Revealed"   38 

Judaea   355,  409 

-'J  udenflinten"   48 

Jucdische  Gazetten   319 

Juedischcs  Tageblatt  319 


K 


Kabak,   A.  A 176 

Kadimah  Society  318,  405 

Kahal — deprived  of  rights  of..  89 
representatives      at      St. 

Petersburg    93 

furnishes      recruits      to 

army    101-2 

abolished     by     Nicholas 

I  (1844)  122 

Kahana,   David    174 

72Kalisch,  Bertha  327 

Kalischer,  Zebi  Hirsch, 

371.  375,  398 

Kallirnachos,     ruler     of     Mol- 
davia    223 

Kalmucks    223 

13Kaminer,    Dr 174 

56Kaminka,  Dr 406 

Kankrin,  Count, 

minister       of       Russian 

finance    104 

aids     in    colonization 

schemes    108 

Kann    234 

300  Kansas    298 

Kansas  Bill 280 

419  Kant,  Immanuel 6 

386  Kantakuzov    193 

Kantor,  Dr.  Judah  Loeb  172 

Kaplan,  Wolf   152 

Karageorgevitch,  Alexander  .  .218 

420  Karabtchewsky   200 

Karaites — exempted  from   fur- 
nishing recruits  under  Nich- 
olas I  101 

instigate      expulsion      of 
Jews  from  Vilna   ....111 

Karl  Anton,  Prince  237 

Kasson,  John  A 233 

Katkoff    126 

Kattowitz    286 

Katzenelson,  Isaac   175 

Kaufmann,  Governor  General..  160 
Kaufmann,  Professor  David, 

177,  370 

Kaufman,  Sigismund  277 

Kavcrct    174 

Kayserling,  Dr.  Meyer 32 


454 


INDEX 


Kehillah     (New    York     Com- 
munity)     336 

Kelly,  Myra   309 

Keneset  Yisroel 172 

Keneseth    Israel    Congregation 

of  Philadelphia   271 

Kerem,  Hemed  15,  146 

Keren  Or 317 

Kerensky,  Alexander  F...202,  210 
Kesher  Shel  Barzel  Order.... 285 

Kharkov     379,  419 

Kherson,     Jewish     settlement, 

107,   108,   110 

Kiev,   expulsions    from    192 

Beilis  affair  at, 

53,  197,  199,  200.  295 

annexed  to  Russia  88 

Jews  permitted  to  live  in  92 
expulsion  of  Jews   from 

104,  111 

anti-Jewish   riots   in 163 

Kievlyanin  165,  202 

Kimberley,   Synagogue  in 350 


"Kozoh  shel  Yod"  152 

Krasovsky,   government   inves- 
tigator    199 

in  Beilis  affair 201,  202 

Krauskopf,  Dr.  Joseph  300 

Kremenchug 92 

Krochmal,  Nachman 23,  135 

Kruger,  Oom  Paul 350,  353 

Krushevan,  Pavolachi  194 

Kuranda — elected    to    Austrian 

Reichsrath  25 

Kuratorium    430 

Kurdistan    427 

Kutais — ritual  blood  accusation 
at   ..159 


Labori,  Fernand  72,  75 


"Kinnor  Bat  Ziyyon"   ISOLasker,  Edward — 


"Kiriyah  Ne'emanah"   143 

Kishinev,    massacre    of    Jews 

in  193-6 

Klausner,  Dr.  Joseph.  175,  179,  189 
Klein,  Rabbi  Philip  315 


Klerksdorp 


Kley,  Dr 252 

Klima,  Maria  52 


Knyshin — expulsion     of     Jews 


from 


111 


Knox,  Philander  C 338  Lateiner,  Joseph 

Kohler,  Dr.  Kaufman.265,  269,  272  "T  "     rru™ :~     ' 


Kohn,   Abraham    277 

Kohn,  Rabbi  Abraham  23 

Kobrin,  Leon  320,  326 


Kohut,  Dr.  Alexander  ...310,  315 


Kokesch,  Dr. 


Kol  Mebasser   183 

Kokebe  Yizhak  146 

"Kol  Mehazezim"  181 


Kompert.  Dr.  Leopoid  ".'.'.'.'.'.  '-232  Lazarus,  Emma, 
Konitz — ritual    murder    charge 

at 55 

Konotop — anti-Jewish  riots  in.  163 
Kossuth,  Louis 

champions     removal     of 

Jewish  disabilities.  .20,  54 
Kovno    .  ....  15     Baer 


Laferriere 


78 


'La  France  Juive"   57,  82 


La  Libre  Parole 


58 


Landsberg,  Dr 331 


protagonist    of    Liberal- 
ism     37 

aid  to  Bismarck  41 

resolutions  of  sympathy 
on  death  of  47,  162 


351  L'Antijuif    56 


'L'Antisemitisme,"  by  Bernard 

Lazare  70 

Lapkovsko,  Benish  94 


Knefler,  Brevet- Major  General 

Frederick    282  Larger   Actions    Committee ...  419 

"Kniga  Kahala"    160  Lasker  settlement  298 


Lassalle,  interpreted  by  Georg 

Brandes 8,  37 

.326 


La     Theorie     du     Judaisme," 

Chiarini    113 

L'Aurore    71 

'Law    of     Sale    of     Personal 
Property"    281 


405  Lawrence,  Amos  285 


Lauterbach,  Edward   337 

Lazare,  Bernard  69,  70,  412 

Lazarus,  D.  B 348 

"?,  290,  386 

Lazarus,  Josephine  291 

Lazarus,  Prof.  M..17,  18,  31,  45, 

232 

League  of  British  Jews  436 

Leavitt.  Ezekiel    30! 

Lebensohn,     Abraham     Dob 


.141 


Kowner    .  136Lebensohn,    Micah    Joseph 150 


INDEX 


455 


Leblois    7 

L'Educatore  Israelita   21 

Leeser  colony 29; 


Leeser,   Isaac,    .256,   262-3,   273-4 

Lefin,  Mendel  (Satanover) 18 

Legion  of  Honor  72 

Lehman,   Rabbi    11 

Leipzig— one     time     home     of 

Jost  and  Jellinek   1 

synod  of   1 

home  of  Ignatz  Einhorn  2 

Lemberg    21 

Lengenau  3 

Lenine    21( 

Lepine,  Governor  General 7<i 

Lermontoff    13( 

Leroy — Beaulieu,    Anatole 58-' 

his  analysis  of  the  Jew. .  6( 

Lessing,  Ephraim    43,  112 

Letteris,  Dr.  M 135 

Leucht,  Rev.  Isidore   .  .  .27 


Levanda,  Leo , .  131,  384,  398 

Levant    427 

Leven,   N 231 

Levi,  Leo  N.  . . .  .  .28^ 


.348 


Levien,  J. 

Levin,  Dr.  Schmarya  333-4 

Levinsky,  A.  L 

Levinsohn,  Isaac  Baer 

views    favorably    Jewish 

colonization  in  Siberia.108 
agitater     for     Jewish 

school  reforms    ...112-113 
named      the      "Russian 

_  Mendelssohn,"    137 

his       "Teudah      be-Yis- 

roel"   138,  139-140 

Levy,   Arthur    232 

Levy,  Barnett  348 

Levy,  Captain  L.  M 278 

Levy,  Commodore  Uriah  Phil- 
lips     282 

Levy,  Lipman   264 

Levy,  L.  W 348 

Lewin — Epstein,  E.  W 435 

Lewisohns,  the  303 

Liberte    57 

Libin,   Z 326 


Limerick   84-5 

Lincoln,   Abraham    277,  282-3 

Lincoln's  Inn   281 

Linetzky,  Isaac  Joel !l83 


Lippe,  C ..244 

Lippschuetz,  Dr.  Bernhard...  14 

Lipsky,  Louis  333 

Liptzm,  Kenia  327 

L  Israelita  27 

Lissa,  Poland  294 

Lithuania,  stronghold  of  Mit- 

nagdim  113,  204,  205,  340 

Lithuania,  Jews  of  340 

Littauer,  Lucius  L 241 

"Litvak" — an  opprobrious  term 

applied  to  Polish  Jews  205 

Liverpool,  Jews  as  Lords 

Mayor  of  82 

Livonia  27 

expulsion  of  Jews  from  89,  208 
Lodz,  Jewish  assimilationists 

in   .  ..204 


Loew,  Dr.  Leopold — leader  of 

Reform  party  in  Hungary...   17 
Loewe,    Ludwig    &     Co.,     de- 
famed by  Ahlwardt   48 

L'Olper — friend  and  adviser  of 

Mazzini   29 

'Lo  Nahat  be-Yisroel" 176 

Condon,  England 

Jewish   organizations    in 

16,  19 

ghettos  in 80 

Jews  as  officers  in  82 

home    of     Antisemite 

Alexander  McCaul  ...114 
(see  also  405,  406,  410,  413, 

431-2.) 
Condon  Board  of  Deputies    .  .243 

ondon  Chief  Rabbinate  347 

Condon,  Jack  308 

ondon,   Myer    305 

Condon  Times  278 

Longfellow,  H.  W 286 

.oubet,   Emile    73 

.ouisiana   278-9,  296-7,  299 

.ouisville    262 

.overs  of  Zion    (Hobebe  Ziy- 
von)    .       .......  ..378-82 


Lievin.  Prince    139  Luban     419 

Liknaitz,  David   330  Lucienville    301 

Lilienblum,  Moses  Loeb,  Lueger,   Karl    52 

136,  148,  189,  384.  391-5,  398  Lukyanovka,  suburb  of  Kiev..  197 


Lilienthal,  Dr.  Max,  103,  104,  115- 
118,  120,  140,  252-3,  259-62,  265- 
6,  271,  283 


Lutheran  Church — 

baptism  of  Jews  in 2 

Lutostansky   160 


456 


INDEX 


Luxembourg,  Grand  Duchy  of. 271  Maryland    .  .275 


Luzzatti,  Luigi 29 

Luzzatto,  S.  D..11,  16,  27,  28,  147 


Lyck,  Prussia 


320 


home  of  Ha-Maggid  . . .   I, 
removal  of  Mekize  Nir- 

damim  Society  from..   16  Mauricio 
Lyon,  Robert     256  Maurogonato 


M 

McCaul   .  ..141 

"Maaseh-Buch"   180 

Maccabean  333,  405 

"Maggid  Emet"    119,  14Z 

Magnes,  Dr.  Judah  Leon  .329,  341 
"Mahanayim"   380 


Masaryk,  Prof 412 

Maskilim,  The   132-3 

Masliansky,  Harris   316 

Mason  and  Dixpn  Line   276 

"Mas'ot  Binyamin  ha-Shelishi".176 


...300 
...301 
27,  29 
Maxwell,  General  Sir  John. . .  .430 

Maybaum,  Dr.  S 408 

May  laws   HQ 

Mayence    18 

Mayer,  Captain   58 

May's  Landing    298 

Mazeh,  Rabbi  Jacob  201 

'Meat  tax"  185 

Alegaleh  Temirin" 151 

Meisels,  Rabbi  Dob  Berush...  24 
Mekize  Nirclamim  Society 15 


Maimon,  Solomon  134,  387Meklenburg-Schwerin    14 

Maimonides  64  Melbourne    347 

Maimonides    Library    of    New       Melikov,  Loris  163 

York  284  Mendele  Mok'her  Seforim 

Maklakoff  200  183,  185,  188 

Malaga    298! Mendelssohn,  Moses. .  .6,  7,  32,  91 

Manchester,  England  14  Mendelssohn,    Meyer    108 


Mandelkern,  Dr.  Solomon   ....17 
Mandelstam,   B..108,   116,   119,  14. 

Mandelstam,    Benjamin    14 

Mandelstamm,  Leon 14 

Mandelstamm,  Dr.  Max, 

129,  384,  397,  420-2 

Mane,  Mordecai  Zebi 175 

Mannheimer,  Isaac  Noah. 7,  9,  10 

2' 

"Mannikin,  The"  183,  185 

Mansion    House    22? 

Manteuffel,  Baron 

Mantua    28 

Manual     Training     School     of 

Philadelphia    284 

Mapu,  Abraham  1 5C 

Marathon    367 

The  Mare"   185 


Margolin    200  Mikveh  Israel  Congregation  of 


Margolis,  Menasseh  129 

Margolis,  Dr.  Max  307 

Margulies.  Dr.  S.  H 28 

Markoff  II   198 

Marks,   Samuel    353 

Marshall,  Louis    243 

337,  339 
Marx,  Karl   37 


Marmorek  brothers   406 


Mars,  Field  of 


Mendoza,  Jewish  Communities 

in    302 

Menorah,     monthly     of     Bnai 

Brith   284 

"Menorat  ha-Maor"  180 

Merzbacher,  Rev.  Dr 253,  270 

Mesopotamia  421,  427 

Metz,  Rabbinical  Seminary  of.   12 

Metullah,    colony   of 380 

Mexican  War   275 

Mezah    172 

Michel,  Prince  218 

Mickiewicz,  Adam 

friendly  to  Jews   203 

Ladislaus,   defends  Jews 

of  Poland   207 

Mielziner,   Moses    9 

Mikveh    Israel  Colony 372 


Philadelphia 273 

Milan,   Prince   219 

Milhamoth    David    ba-Pelish- 

tim"   152 

Mill,  John  Stuart  8 

Milton,  John  287 

fi-Misrah  umi-Maarab   173 

Minhag  America  Prayer  Book, 

260-2 


67Minikes,  H 319 


INDEX 


457 


Minsk,  annexed  to  Russia 88 

Minsk,  Congress  of 417 

Minsk,  treatment  of  Lilienthal      I 

in    118 

Miranda,   Isaac   247 


Mishmar  ha-Yarden 


.380 


Mississippi  River   297 

Missouri    277 

Mistschuk    202 

Mitauer,  Elias   108 

Mitnagdim   97,  98 

Mizrachi    33 

"Modern  Exodus"  85 

Mogulesco,  Sigmund  327 

Mohilev   88,  96,  104,  107 

Moise,  Penina    286-7 

Moiseville,  colony  of 301 

Moldavia  219,  224,  225 

Moment    188 

Mommsen,  Theodor 44 

Alontmarte    76 

Montefiore     Agricultural     Aid 

Society  296-7,  298 

Montetiure  colony    298 

Montefiore,  Jacob  348 

Montefiore,  Sir  Moses 

16,  106,  140,  219,  348,  358,  386 

Montreal    247-49 

Morais,  Sabato  277,  315 

Mores,   Marquis  de   58 

Morgenthau,  Henry 341 

Moritzburg,    Synagogue  at 35C 

Morocco   353,  427 

Morpurgo,  A.  V 27 

Morris,  J.  N 283 

Morris,   Robert    294 


N 

Nachod   (Austria)  — anti-Jew- 
ish riots  in  52 

Nagy  Becskerek 20 

Namaqualand     351 

Xapoleon   Bonaparte  convokes 

the  Sanhedrin  93 

his   opinion  of  Speransky  96 

Napoleon  III  25 

intercedes    for   Jews    of 

Roumania   227 

Narodnaya  Volya,  influence  on 

Russian  Jewish  youth  157 

Xasi,    Don    Joseph,    Duke    of 

Naxos  214 

Nathan,  Ernesto  28 

Nathan,  Dr.  Paul  426 

"Nathan  the   Wise"    43 

National  Farm  School  300 

National  Jewish   Hospital   for 

consumptives    284 

National    Jewish    Workers' 

Ass'n    343 

Xaumberg,  H.  D 176,  188 

Xeamtz   224 

Xehemiah    392 

Xer  ha-Maarabi 318 

Xesselrode   94 

Xesviszh  —  home     of     Eliezer 
Dillon   .  .  93 


Morrison,  I.  D. . 


.330 


Mortara  case 19,  28 

Moruzi,  Alexander   222 

Moscow    103,    192 

Mosenthal,  Adolph  351 

Mosenthal,  James    351 


Mosenthal,  Julius   351 


Moses 

Moses,  Lieutenant  Colonel  Is- 


rael 


276 


Mossinsohn,  Dr.  Benzion    33^ 

Mostaganem    7£ 

Mozah  colony  38C 

Muenster,  Count  von 68 


Xes  Ziyyona  (Wadi  El  Chan- 

in)     379 

Xetter,  Charles   372 

Xetter,  K 234 

Xeubauer,  Adolph 11 

Xeumark,  Dr.  David  177 

XTeustettin,  Germany,  scene  of 
bloody  riots  against  Jews...  46 

Nevakhovitch,  Lev   91 

"New  Exodus"   109 

New  Haven    254 

New  Jersey   298-300 

Xewlinsky,  Chevalier  de  .  .405,  410 
Xew  London  (Canada)    249 


369  New  Odessa   297-298 

Xew  Orleans   278,  284,  296 


Xewport,  R.  1 286 

New  South  Wales,  Congrega- 
tion of   348 

New    Testament  —  as    founda- 
tion  for  tenets  of  Socialism  43 


Munich  33  Xew  York 


Munk,  Solomon 10 

"My  Travels  in  Russia" 118 

Myers,  Joel  351 


.20,  47,  49,  80 


Jewish  cemetery  in   ....246 
German    Jewish    settlers 
in   .  ..252 


458 


INDEX 


New  York — 

Jewish        Congregations 

in    .; 252-. 

jealousy       of       western 

Jewish  leadership  of.261-2 

(see  also  pp.  266,  274,  276 

296-8,  300,  303,  421) 

New  York  Community  33< 

Xew  York  Tribune  277 

New  Zealand  319  349,  35( 

"Nezah  Yisroel"   318 

Nicholas  I  of  Russia — 

his  despotic  rule  towards 

Jews     .20,    99,    100,    101 

104-5,  106,  11 

his     scheme    of    Jewish 

colonization    ..107-8,   110 

113-11 

takes  favorable  action 
'towards  petition  of 
Jews  of  Riga  for  a 

modern  school  115 

forces  secular  education 

on  Russian  Jews   ....  120 
his  action  on  ritual  mur- 
der trial  of  Velizh....l22 

his    death 

Nicholas      II,     the     "Imbecile 

Czar"   190,  195 

closing     years      of      his 

reign   197 

persecutes  Beilis  defend- 
ers     202 

his  last  anti-Jewish  out- 
rages     207 

end  of  his  dynasty  . .  .208-9 
Nicolayev — expulsion    of   Jews 

from    Ill,    193 

Nietzsche  —  as  interpreted  by 

Georg  Brandes    

Nijni-Novgorod    102 

Noah,  Mordecai  Manuel. 246,  361, 

415 

"Nofet   Tsufim"    180 

Nordau,  Max   .406,  407.  412.  417 
419,  422,  425 

Nordin,  Benjamin    350 

Norkkoeping   2 

North  America   302 

North  Dakota   300 

Novoye  Vremya  165 


Obrenovich,  Prince  Milosch,  of 
Serbia    .  ..218 


Occident 256,  258,  274 

Odessa  .116,  159,  174,  188,  196,  204, 

298 

Odessa   Committee 387,   394-5 

"Olat  Tamid" 271 

Old  Paths   114    141 

Oliphant,    Sir   Lawrence. 346,' 365, 

ni          o  38° 

Olney,  Secretary 337 

Omsk   iQg 

Oppenheim,  Heinrich  Bernhard  41 

Orange    Free    State 350 

Order  Brith  Abraham .'  ^328 

Order  of  Medjidie   413 

Order  Sons  of  Zion '.'.'.  .333 

Oregon    '297 

'Orhot  he-Talmud"  .' .'  151 

Orlov — Jewish  proselytes  in...  95 

Jrshansky,  Ilya 129 

3ppert,  Jules 10 

Orthodoxy— plans    for    its    de- 

12-15 

as  expounded  by  Hildes- 
heimer 17-18 

in    sharp    struggle    with 
Reform    20 

its  organ  in  Germany...  27 

in  America   273 

Jrzeszka,  Eliza  203 

Osman-Bey    '  55 

'Otechestvenniya  Zapiski"  ....131 

Dttawa  249,  435 

3ttolenghi,  General   '.  29 

Dttoman  Empire,  decline  of  ..374 

Oudtshorn,  Synagogue  of  350 

Oxford,  Mississippi  282 

'Ozar  ha-Midot"    318 

'Ozar  ha-Shemot"    318 

Osar  ha-Sifrut    173 

'Ozar  Ha-Yahadut"    174 

Jzar  Nehmad   146 

Ozar  Yisroel" ..318 


'adua — home  of  S.  D.  Luzzatto  16 
Rabbinical  Seminary  at.27,  28 

'ahlen.  Count   165 

'ale  of  Settlement — 

Jewish  colonies  in  110 

barring    of    Jews    from 
^ important  centers  in.. Ill 
Nicholas  I  plans  opening 

schools  in    116 

modernization    of    Jew- 
ish schools  in 119 


INDEX 


459 


Pale  of  Settlement — 

establishment  of  elemen- 
tary schools  in   120 

Palestine  101,  284,  291,  402, 

403,  405,  410,  412,  414,  417,  424, 
425,  426,  427-9,  430-6. 

Palestine — Jews  of   416 

Palestine  Commission  .  .  .423 


Pampas  province 
Panama  Canal 


301 

58 

Pantheon — burial  of  Zola  in..  76 
Papacy  —  Ernesto    Nathan    as 

opponent  of   28 

Paris  —  international     Jewish 

conference  at  231-2 

transfer  of  its  Rabbinical 

Seminary    12 

conference     of     French 

Rabbis  in  14 

scene  of  the  literary  la- 
bors of  Sachs   15 

founding     of     "Alliance 
Israelite     Universelle" 


in    .  .19  Poale  Zion 


exile    home    of     Ignatz 

Einhorn   21 

founding    of    L'Antijuif 

in 56 

anti-Jewish   measures   in  60 
arrival  of  Max  Regis  in.  78 
(see  also  pp.  385,  399,  419) 
Parliament,     British  —  consid- 
ers laws  for  alien  exclusion  83 

Parsons,  Herbert  338-9 

Passover   114 

Pasha,    Djemal    428 

Pass,  Aaron  de  351 

Patterson,    Lieutenant    Colonel 

J.  H 430 

Paul,   Czar    90 

Peixotto,  Benjamin  F....227,  229, 
230-2,  284 

Pennsylvania   300 

Peoples  Relief  Committee    ...340 
Perez,  Isaac  Loeb.,134,   176,  178, 

187-9 

Perier,  President  Casimir  68 

Pergola,  Prof.  Raphael 430 

Perl,  Joseph 23,  135 

Perm — cantonists  in  102 

Persia    427 


Perth,  Congregation  of 


.348 


Philadelphia — 

274,  277,  286,  421 
Rabbinical  Conference  of. 251 

Philipopolis    216 

Philo    142 

Philipson,  Rabbi  David..  104,  118, 

332 

Philippson,  Dr.  Ludwig  .11,  15,  16, 
17,  24,  44 

Piatra   224 

Picquart,  Colonel. 68,  69,  70,  71,  73, 

76 

Piedmont  29 

Pierce,  United  States  President 

279 

Pinner,   Moritz    277 

Pinsker,  Dr.  Leo  . .  134,  182,  384-5, 
387,  393,  395,  397-8,  414 

Pinsker,  Simha   382 

Pirogov    126 

Pisarev    157 

Pius  IX  39 

Plehve  (von)    194,  196 


.333,  420 


Pobyedonostseff 191,  357 

Podolia  88,  97,  104 

Poland,   Jews   of — their   right- 

lessness    , 202 

under  Kosciusko   203 

rising  against  Czar, 

203,  204,  206 
Poland — defended     by     Georg 

Brandes   9 

included  in  Russian  ter- 
ritory    88 

Polish     Jews     in     Little 

Russia   89 

restriction  of  the  Jews  in  90 
character  of  Polish  He- 
brew  Schools    ....112-340 
gross  ignorance  of  Juda- 
ism    .....204 

immigration     of     Lithu- 
anian  Jews   into 204 

Co-operative       Consum- 
ers'   Association    206 

Jews    accused    of    being 

Russophiles    205 

boycott  of  Jewish  trade 

206-7 

"Polish    Boy"    183 

Polish     Literature  —  favorable 


Petah  Tikwah  Colony 378)    portrayal  of  Jews  in  203 

Peter  the  Great   89  Polish  Nationalist  Party  206 

Peters    Rev.  Madison  C 310  Politechnicum    425 

Philadelphia  ....  250,  251,  262,  273,  Politiken  8 


460 


INDEX 


Polna  ritual  murder  charge...  52 
Pope,  political  influence  of, 

39,  87,  375 

Port  Elizabeth  350 

Portsmouth    82 

Posen 13,  14,  103 

Prague  15.  38,  52 


Pranaitis  200,  202  Reichsrath,  Austrian 


Prelooker,  Jacob  157 

Presburg    S3 

''Present  Day  Epics"   152 

Pretoria    351 

Prcussischc  Jahrbiicher 44 

Provisional   Committee    (Zion- 
ist)     334,  435.  437 

Prussia 10,  18,  25,  38,  41 

Puck  (Yiddish)  319 

Pueckler,  Count  von 49 

Pushkin    130 

Puttkamer   (von)    45 

Q 

Quebec 249 

Queensland,  Congregation  of.. 348 
R 

Raaben   (von)  195 

Rabbinical  College  of  America.310 
Rabbinites — power  of 97 

their  devotion  to  Jewish 
ideals 99 

their  opposition  to  "Teu- 

dah  be-Yisroel"  113 

Rabbinovitch,   Isaac    175,  318 

Rabbinovitch,  Leon  175,  188 

Rabbinovitch,    M 317 

Rabbinovitch,  Osip    131,  182 

Rabbinovitch,  S.  P 177,  384 

Rabbinovitch,  Solomon 
(see  Shalom  Aleikhem) 

Rabnitzky,  J.  H 174,  189 

Racah,  L 27 

Radin,  Dr.  Adolph  M 315 

Raisin,  Abraham    188 


Rapoport,  Solomon  10,  23 


Raphael,  J.  G. 


.348 


Rapoport,  S.  L 135,  147  Rockhill,  W.  W. 


Rasputin,  Gregory   191 

Razsvyet 129 

Reading,     Lord      (Sir     Rufus 
Isaacs)    431 


Record    (Yiddish)    319  Romanoff    dynasty 

Redemptorist  Monks   85  Rombro,  Jacob 


20,  21,  23,  249,  251,  253,  256,  257, 

262 
Reform    Society    of    Israelites 

252,  267 

Reggio,    Solomon    10 

Regis,  Max  77-8 

Rehobot,  Colony  380 


election  of  Jews  to,  1860 

24,  25 
legislation    against    Jews 

Jn   51 

ritual     murder     accusa- 
tions in  53 

Reichstag 

Jewish  members  of.. 33,  37 
strength      o  f      Catholic 

party  in   41 

discussion    against   Anti- 

semitism  in   45 

Bismarck's      anti-Jewish 

influence  in 46 

Stoecker's  attack  against 

Jews  in    47 

Ludwig  Loewe  &  Co.  as 

subject  of  debate  in..  48 
election  of  Ahlwardt  to.  49 

Renan,   Ernest 8,  56 

Rennes,    new    trial    of    Drey- 
fus in    73,  74 


Republican     National    Conven- 


tion 


.277 


Revolutionary     War     (Ameri- 
can)     247,  275 

Revue  des  deux  Monde s 56 

Rhodes,  Cecil  351 

Rhodesia    351 

Richards,    B.    G 308 

Richmond,  Va 262,  273, 

275,  281,  332 

Richmond  Whig  273 

Riga  115 

Rintel,  Rev.   Moses 347 


Raisin,   Jacob  S 158Rishon  le-Ziyyon  Colony 379 

Raisin,  Max .330  Ristitch  235 

Raphael,  Rabbi  M.  J 276-7  Robertson,  Synagogue  at 350 


Rochefort,  Marquis  de 58 

Rockenstein,  Dr.  Leopold 20 


.338 


Rodkinson,  Michael  L 311 

Rohling,  August   38 

Roman,  Ronetti  244 

Romanin.  Samuel   .  .  29 


.208,  209 
.320 


Reform  Judaism.  12,  13,  14,  16,  17,|Rome,  Ghetto  of... 27,  28,  39,  211 


INDEX 


461 


Roodepoort  351 

Roosevelt,  President  Theodore, 

49,  241,  335,  338 

Root,   Elihu    337 

Rosario  302 

Rosenbaum,  S.  J 419 

Rosenberg,  A.  H.. .  .311,  371-8,  330 

Rosenberg,  Adam  330 

Rosenberg,  Private  Nissel 431 

Rosenfeld,  Jonah 188 

Rosen  f eld,  Morris  322-23 

Rosenfeld,  Samuel    188 

Rosenhayn,  N.  J 298 

Rosenthal,  Daniel    225 

Rosenthal,  Herman, 

296,  297,  317,  318,  330 

Rosenthal,  Leon   155 

Rosenthal,  Nissen  116 

Rosenwald,  Julius 341 

Rosenzweig,  Gerson,  317,  318,  330 

Rosh   Pinah   Colony 379 

Rothschild,  Baron  Anselm  von  25 
Rothschild,  Baron  Edmund  de, 
379,  381 

Rothschild,  Baron  Lionel  de.. 
Rothschild,  influence  of  House 

of 56 

Rothschild,   Lord   Walter  Lio- 
nel    432,  434.  436 

Rothschild,  Nathaniel 82,  86 

Roumania,    219,  220,  226,  232,  284, 

293,  340,  352,  364,  376, 

379,  394,  414 

Royce,  Professor    307 

Ruelf,  Dr.  Isaac 384, 

Ruppin,  Dr.  Arthur  50 

Russia 

"Judaizing"  movement  in  95 
Speransky's  liberal  min- 
istry   96 

Southwestern    home    of 

Hassidism    97 

spiritual  sway  of  Rabbi- 

nites  and  Hassiddim.. 

"Holy"  aim  of  Nicholas 

I  to  unify  all  religions 

under    Greek    Catholic 

Church 100 

army  service  in....  101,  102 
Jewish  converts  in .....  103 
new  restrictions  against 

Jews    105 

visit   of    Moses    Monte- 

fiore  , 106 

Jewish   colonization    un- 


iussia — 

der   Alexander   I   and 

Nicholas  1 107 

Influence  of  Haskalah 
movement  on  Russian 

Jews    112 

study  of  Hebrew  gram- 
mar in  113 

false  accusations  against 

Talmud  114 

scanty  recognition  in 
Russia  of  German 

Jewish  rabbi 120,  180 

suffering  of  Jews  during 

the  Great  War 208-9 

liberation    of    Jews    in, 

209-211 

opposes  solution  of  Rou- 
manian Jewish  prob- 
lem   229 

(See  also  pp.  305,  362,  370, 
381,  385,  394-5,  401,  414, 
433.) 

396  Russian  Cossacks   340 

18  Russian,  Disabilities  for  Amer- 
ican Jews    261 

Russian  Government   336-337 

Russian  Israel    415 

Russian  Jewish  immigrants, 

277,  289,  294-5,  299 

Russian  Jewry   180 

Russian  Orthodoxy    314 

Russki  Yevrei   129 

Russkiya  Vyedomosti   126 

398  Russo-Japanese   War 190,  196 

Russo-Turkish  War, 

216   222,  224,  231-2 
Rustchuk   216 


99  St 


Sabbathai  Zevi 358 

Sachs,  Michael  14,  16 

Safed  358 

.  John   (Canada) 249 

St.  Kilda   347 

St.  Petersburg  (Petrograd)— 
establishment  of  Jewish 

council  in 93 

number  of  converts  in..  103 

residence  rights  in 104 

Dr.  M.  Lilienthal  in 115 

Rabbinical      Commission 

of  143 

expulsion  of  Jews  from, 

188,  192-3 


462 


INDEX 


St.  Petersburg  (Petrograd)  — 
Bar  Association  protests 

at  Beilis'  trial   20; 

St.  Petersburg    Central    Com- 
mittee     30] 

Salisbury,  Lord  237 

Salomon,  Dr 252 

Salomon,  Hyam  247,  29^ 

Salomons,  Sir  Julian 348 


Saloniki 


Salvador,   Joseph    36c 

Samfield,  Dr 331 


214,  424  Seesen    252 


Samuel    family   in   Canada 249  Seixas,  Rabbi  Gershon  Mendes.246 


Samuel,  Sir  Saul 348 

San  Antonio  Colony 301 

Sandherr,   Colonel 

"Sanegor"    144 

San  Francisco    284 

Sanhedrin 93,  360,  367-8,  373, 

406,  46 

Santa  Fe   301-2 

Santa  Isabel   301 

Sarasohn,  K.  H 317,  319,  330 

Saratov — 

Jewish  proselytes  in 95 

ritual  murder  trial  in...  123 

Savoy,   House  of 26 

Scandinavia    1-6,  344 

Schaefer,  Dr 307 

Schaefer,  S 330 

Schaffhausen  .,  .32 


Schapiro,  Prof.  H 384,  386 

Scharf ,  Joseph   53 

Scharf ,  Moriz    53 

Scharf,  Samuel    53 


Schatz,    Professor    Boris 428  Shimoni,  David 


Schatzkes,  Moses  Aaron. 
Schechter,   Dr.   Solomon, 


,186 


244,  311,  329,  426 


Stcheglovitoff  199  Shneor,  Z. 

Scheurer-Kestner    70  Shomere  Ha-Dat 

Schiff,  Jacob  H., 


241,  312,  341,  426,  436 

Schiller    112,  323 

Schneor  Zalman,  Rabbi   98 

Schnirer,  Dr 405 

Schoenerer,    Georg  von 51 

Schofman,    G 176 

Schreiber,  Dr.  E 251 


Sclmlman,  Fleazar  189  Shylock  . 


Schulman,  Samuel    307 


Sch wartzf eld,  Dr.  E..224,  240,  244 

Schwarzkoppen    68 

Scotland 85 

Scott,  Mary  Finn 308 

Scott,  Walter   286 

Sea  of  Tiberias 372 

Sebastopol,  exnulsion  of  Jews 

from    HI 

Second  Balkan  War 214,  243 


Seifert,  M 320,  326 

Seixas,  Rev.  Isaac  B 273 


Seligman,  Isaac  232 

Jesse    227 

William    232 

Selikpwitsch,   G 317 

Semlin,  Croatia  370 

Sephardic     Immigration     from 
Turkey  and  the  Orient  to  the 

U.  S • 293 

Sephardic  Orthodoxy  in  Amer- 
ica     245-6 

Serbia 217,  219 

Sergius,  Grand  Duke 166,  192 


Shaari  Zedek  Congregation  of 
New  York 


.294 


Shearith     Israel    Congregation 

of  New  York   246 

of  Montreal   247 

Shaftesbury,  Lord 381 


Schaikewitch,  N.  M.,  186,  319,  320  Shalkowitch,  A.  L 172 


Shalom,  Aleikhem,  176,  186,  187-8 

"Shalom  al  Yisroel" 144 

Shapiro,  Professor  Israel 307 

Sharkanskv,   A.    M 322 


.176 


'Shire  Bat  Ziyyon"   150 

'Shire  Sefat   Kodesh"    141 

'Shne   Yoseph  ben   Shimon"..  153 


,175 
22 


'Shomeret  Yabam"   152 


Shor.  J.  H.. 


.147 


Shouvaloff,  Count 235 

Shpola   163,  193 

'Shtrafnoi"  132 

Shulgin    201,  202 

Shulhan  Aruk 12 


Shur,  W. 


.318 
.  66 


Siberia   95,  101,  103,  106,  108 


Sicily   26 


Schur.  Wolf   317,  330 

Schwab,  Rabbi   20 

Schwabacher.    Dr 133,  182  SlcllY  Island,  Louisiana 296 

Schwarzberg,  S.  B 318  Sikorsky,  Professor 200 


4^3 


Silbermann,  Eliezer  Lipman,  "Stempenyu"  .................  187 

15,  16,  146  Stern,  Myer  .................  232 

Silberstein,  Joseph  S  ..........  317  Steytlersville,  Synagogue  of.  .  .350 

Simon,  Leon  .................  434  Stoecker,  Adolf  .  .40,  42-3,  47,  162 

Simonsen,  D  .................     9  Stolypin,   Russian  Premier.  ..  .200 

Sinai  ....................  263,  270  Strashun.  Mathias  ........  16,  144 

Singer,  Dr.  Isidor  ........  174,  312  Straus,  Nathan  ...............  341 

Sion   .........................  129  Straus,  Oscar  S  ......  241,  284,  311 

Sleswick-Holstein  ............  4,  5  Stryelnikov,  Attorney  General.  164 

Slonimski,  Hayim  Selig  .......  147  Sturdza,   Michael  .............  224 

Smith,  Goldwin  ..............  82  Subbotniki  ......  .  .............  95 

Smolenskin,  Perez,  Suez  Canal  ..................  433 

148,  170-2,  383,  398,  404-5  Sultan,  The       .  .403,  405,  411,  413 
Socialism  .............  40,  43,  305  Sulzberger,  Meyer  ...........  338 

Socialist  Democratic  Party.  ...  38  Sulzer,  William  ..............  339 

Socialist  Revolutionary  Party.  189  Suttner,   Baroness  von  ........  412 

Socialists  —  Sweden    .....................  1-4 

their  activity  in  Dreyfus        Swiss  Confederation  .........  275 

affair  ................  72  Switzerland  .  .29,  33,  261,  275,  434 

Society  for  Promotion  of  En-       Sydney  ......................  346 

lightenment  .....  132.  155-6,  182  Syracuse  ....................  254 

Society    of    Israelitish    Chris-       Syria   ..............  362,  365,419 

tians  .......................  94  Szeged  ......................  20 

Society  of  Jews  ..........  402,  410  Szold,  Rabbi  B..272,  308,  310,  317 

Sofia    ........................  216 

Sokolow.  Nahum  T 

172,  175,  189,  333,  433-34 
Solomons,  Levy  ............  247-8  Tacitus    ..................... 

Solomon,  V.  L  ................  348  Tacglichcr  Herald  ........... 

Solothurn  ....................  32Taft,    William    H  ............. 

Solymosi,  Esther  .............  53  Tag,  The    ................... 

Sonnenberg,  Sundel  ........  93.  94  Taine   ....................... 

South   Africa    ...........  350,  352  Talmud, 

South  Carolina    ..............  276  15,  97,  113,  114,  116,  118, 

South  Dakota    ...........  297,  298  "Talmud  Jew"    .............. 

Southern  States  ..............  276  Tannenbaum,  Abner  ......  320, 

South  Russia    ................  193  Tarnopol  .................... 

Spanier,  Louis   ...............  255  Tashrak    ..................... 

Spanish-American  War    ......  334Taview,  J.  H  .................. 

Spanish  and   Portuguese   Jews       Taylor,  Bayard  .............. 

in  America  .........  245,  247,  283,  Tchaka    ..................... 

285,  292  Tel  Aviv   .................... 

Speransky    ...................  96  Temkin,  Asher    .............. 

Spektor,  Mordecai   ...........  186  Temkin,  W.    J  ............  .  .  .  . 

Snorbere-  .255  Temple  Emanu-El,  New  York, 

llSioza  .  .".V.V.V..  .  ...  .  ......  373  253,  263.  266,  270, 

Spiritual  Bible  Brotherhood.  .  .156  Temple  Sinai  of  Chicago  ..... 

Spi  vak,  Dr.  C.  D  ..............  324  Three   Rivers    ......  ....  .  .  .  .  . 

Stead,  Edmund   ..............  82  Territoriahsm    .  .  .      .384    421, 

Steinberg,  Joseph    ............  348  Teudah  be-Yisroel  ..113.  114, 

Steinberg,  Joshua  ............  133  Texeira  family  in  Denmark.  .  . 

Steinberg,  Judah   .............  176jTheilhaber    Dr.  Felix  A  ...... 

Steinfeld,  H  ..................  348Thor,  Dr.  Osias   ............. 

Steinschneider,  Moritz   .......  10  Thorn,  Prussia   .............. 

Stempel,  Baron  ..............  HOThurgau    .................... 


35 
319 
338 
319 


120 

38 
330 

23 
322 
17o 
23 
352 
423 
11 
419 
, 

272 
271 
248 
422 
138 
4 

5 

23 
371 

•>- 


464 


INDEX 


Titus 355  United  States— 


Tisza  Eslar   54,  55 

Tobolsk   108 

Todt  43 

Toronto  82 

Torquemada Ill 

Torre,  Lelio   della 27 

Touro  colony 293 

Touro  Infirmary  of   New  Or- 
leans   284 

Touro,  Judah   276,  285 

Trades  Unions  304 

Transvaal 350 

"Travels     of     Benjamin     the 

Third"    185 

Treaty  of  Berlin, 
216,  232,  236,  238,  239,  240,  376 

Treaty  of  Paris   (1856) 218 

Treaty    with    Russia     (United 


Treitschke 40,  44,  162 

Trieste    27 

Trietsch,  Davis  416 

Troitzky,  Professor  201-2 

Trok Ill 

Trondhjem 1 

Trotzky,  Leon 210 

Tsarskoye  Selo   191 


commercial    treaties    fa- 
vorable to  Jews 29 

I.  M.  Wise  as  champion 

of    Swiss  Jews 30 

memorial  for  Swiss  Jew- 
ish rights  presented  to 

President   31 

position  of  Jew  in 36 

Ahlwardt's     attempt     at 
Antisemitic       p  r  o  p  a- 

ganda 49 

interested  in  Roumanian 

Jews  227,  230 

sends  Roumanian  note.. 240 
(See  also  pp.  245,  249,  251, 
265,  267,  274,  279,  233,  289, 
294,  296,  237,  428-9.) 
United  Synagogue  of  America.329 


States)    336  University  of  Bishops'  College.247 


.195 


Tsharni,  Samuel  188  Vatican,    sponsors    anti-Jewish 


Trumpledor,   Captain    43f 


Tschlenow,   Doctor.  .397,  433,  434  Veitelson,   Marcus   94 

"Tse-enah  u-Re-enah" 180  Velizh    122 

Tshemerinsky,   H. 


188Veneziani    .  '.'.234 


Tshernihovsky,  Saul 175  Venice,  ceded  by  Austria 


Tula    : 95 

Turgenieff    130,  158 


Turin 


Turkey 293.362, 

364,  392,  403,  410.  424-5, 

428-9,  430-1 

Tuschiah 172 


U 


Uganda  ....418,  419-20 

Union  Army,  Jews  in 276,  281 

Union    of    American    Hebrew 

Congregations    259,  264. 

266,  332,  343 

Union  Prayer  Book 271 

United  Hebrew  Trades    304 

United  States — 

Einhorn  as  Reform  lead- 
er       10 

high  water  mark  of  Re- 
form in  .  ....   14 


29Vercilli 27 


Jrusov,   Prince 

Ussyschkin,  Menahem  Mendel, 

397,  415,  419 
Uvarov,  Count 115,  116,  118 


Van  Buren,  President 275 


agitation    40 


26 

Memorial  Tablet  to  I.  P. 
Maurogonato  in 29 


Verein    fuer   die    Allgemeinen 
Religioesen     Tnteressen     des 

Judenthums   16 

'Ve-Samahta  be-Haggeka"  ...152 
Victor  Immanuel,  King.... 28,  411 

Victoria,  B.  C 249,  347 

Vienna — 

Mannheimer    as    builder 
of    Jewish    community 

in    7 

discouragement  of  radi- 
cal  Reform  in 10.  14 

Lehranstalt    11 

Auxiliary  Branch  of  Al- 
liance    Israelite     Uni- 

verselle 19 

anti-Jewish    aguation    in  39 

Lueger 52 

anti-Jewish   measures   in  60 
headquarters    for    inter- 


INDEX 


465 


Vienna — 

national     Jewish     or- 
ganization   232,419 

Vienna  Allianz    409 

Vilenski  Vyestnik  16C 

Villafranca,  Peace  of 25 

Vilna— 

home  of  Matthias  Stra- 


Wales   85 

Wallachia,  Jews  of 219 

improvement  in  situation 

of   224 

affected    by    revolutions 

of  1848  225 

Wallerstein  104 

Walling,  Rose  Strunsky 308 

schun 16  War  of  1812 93 

annexed  to  Russia 88  Warsaw..24,  88,  114, 188,  204,  206-7 

erection  of  Jewish  hos-       Washington  colony    298 

pital    92  Washington,  D.  C 277 

meeting  of  electoral  col-       Washington,  George   246 

lege  93  Washington,  State  of 300 

R.  Elijah  Gaon 97  Wassilkov  163 

Waterview    298 

Way,   Louis    94 


expulsion  of  Jews Ill 

home  of  Nissen  Rosen- 


thai  116  Webster,  Daniel 


short    lived    triumph    of 


Lillienthal    \\7Weg   188 

Lillienthal's  reception  ..119  Weiss,  I.  H 11,  177 


establishment  of  Rabbini- 


cal Seminary  ....  120,  140  W^elun    207 

closing      of      Rabbinical       Weinberger,  Moses   317 

Seminary,  159,  160, 1ol,  188  Weizmann,  Dr.  Chayim. ..  .433-34 

Virchow,  Professor  45  Wessely,  Naphtali  Herz 6 

Virginia   298  West  Indies  278 


Vitebsk 

Ukase   for  expulsion   of 

Jews  from 94,  96,  104 

establishment  of  Jewish 

settlements    107 

Vladimir,  Grand  Duke 164 

Vogel,  Sir  Julius 349 


Vogelstein,  H. 


.408 


Volhynia — 

annexed  to  Russia. 


Volksadvokat   315 

Volksblatt    .  ..186 


Volkszcitung  37  Wise,  Stephen  S.330,  333,  435,  437 


Volozhin  98,  159 

Volozhiner,  Rabbi  Hayim 98 


Von  Plehve ..411 


Voronezh   95 

Vreyheid,    Synagogue   in. 


W 

Waddington,  William  Henry, 


Wadi-el-Hanin  Colony 


235,  236 


Wagener    13 

Wagenheim  Brothers    104 


.279 


Weiss,  Julius  296 


Welfare  Board  .  ..335 


White,  Arnold 82 

Wiener,  Professor  L..307,  320,  323 

Wiener,    Norman    307 

Wilhelm,  first  Emperor  of  Ger- 
many     19 

William  I,  Emperor 237 

William  II,  Emperor 47,  411 

Wilson.  President  Woodrow..435 


Voskhod  129  Winchevsky,  Morris .  .307,  320,  322 


Winnipeg    249 

88  Winter-stein    25 

home  of  Hassidism 97  Wise,  Dr.  Isaac  Mayer 30,  31, 


252,  274,  277,  283, 
312,  331,  407 


Wisscnschaftlichc     Zeitschrift 

fttcr  Jucdischc   Thcologie...  16 
Wissotsky,  K.  W 384 


Wittgenstein,  Prince   140 

350  Witwatersrand  350 

Wohl,    Treasurer    of    Poland's 
Revolutionary    government.  .203 

Wolf,  Emma   309 

Wolf,  Simon    230,  241,  284 


Wolfenstein,  Martha  309 


379  Wolff,  A.  A 9 


Wolfson,  Isaac  41 

Wolff sohn,    David 422,  425 


IVahrheit   319  Wollenberg,  Leone 


29 


466 


IXDEX 


Woodbine,  N.  J 298,  300 


Worcester 
of 


Road,     Synagogue 


.350 

Worms,  Baron   82 

Wratza 217 


Xanten  47,  55 


Yahuda,  Corporal    43C 

Yale  College   278 

Yehoash      (Solomon      Bloom- 
garden)   322 

Yekaterinoslav    95,  11C 

Yelisavetgrad    163,  295 


Zederbaum,  Alexander. .  .147,  183, 
184,  186,  384-5,  388-395 

iedner,  Joseph  16 

Zeitlin,  Hillcl 177,  189 

Zemstchina  198 

Zerubabel"  141,  392 

Zevin,  1 322 

Zhabotinsky,  Vladimir  J 429 

Zhagory,  Russia  15 

Zhitlowsky,  Hyam,  Dr 189 

Zhitomir...  114,  120,  140,  159,  196 
Zhukowsky  124 


Yemen,  Jews  of 353,  427 

Yesod  ha-Maalah  colony 

Yevreiskaya  Biblioteka  129 

Yiddish   dialect  in  America. .  .29, 
Yiddishists    180,   181,  187 


Yonkers 

Yorish,  Corporal    43 

York-Steiner    412 

"Yosele  Solovey"    18/ 

Young  Judea  33 

Ypsilanti   22 

Yuschinsky,  Andrey, 

197,  198,  200,  202 


'Zidkiyahu 
dot" 


be-Bet     ha-Peku- 


.152 
Zikron  Ya'akob  Colony, 

379,  380,  419 
ion    356,  359 


7i 


Zion  College 261 

Zionism 246,  332,  335,  357, 

365,  370,  375,  395-6, 
407-9,  412,  418-19,  421-2 
Zion  Mule  Corps 430,  431 


Zion  Order  in  Roumania 231 

Zionist  Congress  330 

Zionist  Political    Committee. .  .434 
Zionists'  Convention  in  Switz- 
erland    33 

Zionists,  English 416 

German   416 

Russian    417 

Western   417 

Zitron,  S.  L 175 

Zola,  Emile 58,  71,  72,  76 

Zaitseff  Brick  Works 199  Zuckerman,  Benedict    11 

Zangwill,  Israel,  Zuerich  31,  32 

86,  309,  311,  405,  421,  422Zukunft  305,  309 

''Zapiski  Yevreya" 131  Zunz,  Leopold    10,  15 

Zarudny    / . .  200  Zunser,   Eliakum    186,  320 

Zaslav    140  Zweifel,  Eliezer  Zebi 144,  186 


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